The massive string of lights that made up the artificial sun were turned to their lowest setting, making it night inside the massive cylindrical colony.

The doctor wished he could press the accelerator of his car further down. The test he had run on Zeon Deikun had revealed startling results. There was Polonium 210 in the man’s system and it was killing him. The radioactive poison hadn’t been used in well over a century and the normal radiological tests hadn’t detected it due to the extremely low dose. Most doctors didn’t even look for it anymore, as fission reactors needed to produce it hadn’t been seen in almost seventy years and there was a Nano-Machine cure that could be used to great effect.

The only reason the doctor had found it was that he had a fascination with poisons from the past. As soon as he has found the element in the tests he had been running on Zeon Deikun’s blood he had programed a batch of nano-machines to attack and neutralize the offensive isotope. As soon as that was finished he had called the Deikun residence and jumped into his car.

He dodged around a slow moving truck, slowing down for a second to change lanes and then pressing the accelerator back to the floor. He knew he shouldn’t be driving the way he was, but he wanted to get the cure to the man, who he believed would lead Spacenoids to true freedom, to prevent any further damage to his cellular structure.

There was a sudden blare of a truck horn and the doctor swerved just in time to get around the nose of a truck that emerged from a side street. At that point he realized that he hadn’t said what was wrong with the leader of the Republic of Zeon. He slowed down, wanting to make it to the Prime Minister’s official residence, a three story mansion modeled after the White House, in one piece. He did so and after being waved through the gate by the ZEF (1) guard he parked his car and practically ran into the residence.

He was escorted to the room where Zeon Deikun was resting, his wife Astraia sitting beside him. “I have good news sir,” he said as he strode over to the bedside of the Prime Minister. “I know what is ailing you and I have a cure for it here in my bag.” He set his bag down on the floor next to the bed and pulled out the vile holding the Nano-Machine solution.

“What’s wrong with my husband?” Astraia asked, before Zeon Deikun could, as he was sitting up in the bed.

“Sir you’ve been poisoned with a radioactive isotope known as Polonium 210. It was a poison that was popular in the 20th and early 21st centuries as a poison that was not easily detectable and impossible to stop if it was. It fell out of favor when Nano-Machines were invented to stop the effects of ionizing radiation on the human body. Today most doctors won’t even check for something like this as they don’t think of low dose ionizing as an issue.”

He loaded the vile of Nano-Machine’s onto a pneumatic syringe and checked the small machine to make sure it was going to deliver the solution correctly. As he did this he described what the Nano-Machines would do. “These machines will isolate the isotopes so that they will no longer cause damage and also accelerate their exit from your system.” He cleaned a spot on the Prime Minister’s arm, stuck the needle in and depressed the trigger forcing the nano-machines into the man’s blood stream so that they could start their curative work.

“If you don’t mind me saying so sir,” the doctor cleaned the injection site again and taped a wad of gauze over the small puncture, “but whoever did this to you was very careful. They used something VERY deadly but very hard to detect.”

With a sigh Zeon Deikun lay back against the pillows. “I’m sorry to say that I’m quite sure who is responsible for this.” He reached for the phone on the bedside table and dialed a number. A half hour later the home of the Zabi family was surrounded by loyal Zeon Elite Forces soldiers.

U.C. 0068, December 21
Zum City, Side 3
Republic of Zeon High Court

The courtroom fell into a hushed silence as the panel of judges filed back in from the chamber they had been deliberating in for hours. “All rise,” bellowed the bailiff as the judges filed back into the otherwise silent room. The judges lined up with their seats and sat down. “Be seated,” the bailiff bellowed again.

The chief justice took a deep breath and began speaking to the three men seated alone at a table placed in the open area in front of the judge’s bench. “You three men have been found guilty of treason and attempted murder by a jury of your peers. Usually these crimes would warrant the death penalty; this court has however chosen to be lenient for the sake of one of your number’s younger children. You have all been sentenced to life in prison on the isolated asteroid of Damascus you have no chance for appeal and you are remanded to the custody of the ZEF immediately.”

With that three ZEF guards appeared, one behind each of the three men at the table. In one motion Degwin, Gihren and Sasro Zabi were jerked to their feet and dragged from the courtroom that was now filled with shouts of disbelief at the judges for letting the three men live.

U.C. 0069, January 4
Zum City, Side 3
Prime Minister’s Residence

Zeon Deikun frowned at the note that an aid had just handed him. He felt someone come up behind him, a small hand touched his shoulder and then he felt his wife’s body press up against him. “Hello my dear,” he reached up and placed his hand on top of his wife’s small, warm hand.

“What has you so bothered?” she asked as she interlaced his fingers with hers.

He held up the note a little weakly. “There are people threatening Dozel, Kycilia and Garma, because they think that the Zabi family has gotten off too easily.” He shook his head and pulled his wife closer to him with his free hand. “I can’t think of why some people want to punish children for the actions of their parent’s.” He moved the note again, “I’m not sure what I should do.”

Astraia rotated around in front of him, wrapping her arms around him at the same time. “You will do what you think is right,” she said into his chest, “and whatever it is I will support you.”

He pulled his wife closer to him, tilted his head forward and kissed his wife’s golden hair. He loved her so much. She had always known what he needed to hear so that he had the strength to do what he needed to do. “Thank you dear,” he squeezed and tilted her head back so that he could kiss her on the lips, “I know what I have to do and you have given me the strength to do it once again.”

He called for his aid and the man came back into the room. “Yes sir?”

“I want my car and personal guard ready to move out at once.” Zeon Deikun turned towards the bedroom’s closet to get his great coat, the scheduled rain was due any minute and it wouldn’t do to look unkempt for what he was about to do.

“Sir may I ask the destination?”

Zeon Deikun turned back to the man “I’m headed to the Zabi residence.” With that he strode out of the room heading for his car, which was parked just outside the building. Less than twenty minutes later his car was pulling up to the gate of the Zabi family home, except he couldn’t even see the gate. There was a virtual sea of protesters outside the gate shouting waving signs and throwing the occasional brick or Molotov cocktail over the few guards, who were working mightily to keep them from bursting through the ornate iron gate.

Zeon Deikun leaned forward to the driver, “stop the car here.”

The driver and body guard’s head’s whipped around in unison. “Sir that’s not a good idea,” they said in almost perfect unison. “That bunch look like they’re about to topple down the gate and drag the Zabis out by their hair.”

“That’s exactly why I must get out here” and he opened the door and stepped out into the grey afternoon. The noise of the crowd had drowned out the approach of the cars in his convoy. He started to move through the crowd working his way towards the gate. As he did so the mob got quieter as the identity of the man spread through the group. He finally got to the front of the group by the gate to find a small space had cleared there; he turned and faced the group.

“May I ask what you all are doing here?” He spoke in the most calm, fatherly voice he could muster. It was the voice he would use if Artesia asked him a question that she really didn’t need to know the answer to.

A man stepped forward. “We want the Zabis to pay for what they tried to do.”

Zeon Deikun shook his head, “those in the Zabi family, involved in the conspiracy, have already been punished. The only people left in that house are those that have been cleared of any wrongdoing and children.”

“But…,” stuttered the man, obviously not able to come back with anything substantial, “they tried to kill you sir.”

“I am acutely aware of this,” he turned to address the crowd at large, “but I again state that none of the people left in that house were in anyway involved in the attempt on my life. I continue by saying that the people in that house are now under my personal protection.” With that he turned and moved through the mansion’s gates, leaving a silent crowd behind.

He walked purposefully across the well-manicured lawn and up a few white stone steps, to the large double front doors of the mansion. The doors swung inwards and revealed Dozel Zabi, Degwin’s teenaged son and now the head of the house. The boy…, that wasn’t right Zeon Deikun thought as he finished ascending the stairs, was a young man now. The young man looked haggard and tired for someone his age; the heavy burden of the sudden responsibility for his remaining family rested squarely on his young shoulders now.

“I wouldn’t think you’d want to be seen with us,” a slight smile crossed his tired face at an attempt to lighten the mood, “it might ruin your reputation.”

“My reputation could do with a little ruining every once in a while. Sometimes I think that they make too much of me and my ideas.” The scheduled rain started, “may I come in?”

“Of course, of course,” Dozel stepped aside to allow Zeon Deikun into the large open entrance hall, “I’ll have some coffee made.” He turned to a servant standing along the wall, “take the Prime Minister’s coat and have coffee sent to the library.”

“Right away sir,” the man replied, taking Zeon Deikun’s coat and moving off to comply with the rest of Dozel’s instructions.

Dozel lead him down the hall and into a well-appointed library with dark, wood paneled walls, high shelves of leather bound volumes and a fire crackling in the marble hearth. Kycilia sat on the floor in front of the fireplace with Garma next to her. She was in her school uniform and was reading a book out loud to her younger brother, whose attention was completely wrapped up in the story. Kycilia looked up and, recognizing the man who had just entered with her brother, started to stand.

Zeon Deikun waved for her to remain seated. “There’s no need for such formality with me dear, go back to reading to your brother, I just have a few things to discuss with Dozel and then I’ll be on my way.” Kycilia nodded and sat back down and continued reading the book to her younger brother.

Dozel lead Zeon Deikun to a pair of high backed chairs next to a large window. They had just sat down when a servant came in with a silver tray of coffee and cookies, he set it on the small table between the two and left after Dozel thanked him. Garma, upon seeing the plate of cookies, sprung up and dashed over to the table and left with a cookie for himself and Kycilia clutched in his hands.

Dozel served the coffee and then sat back in the chair. “Now that the formalities are out of the way, let’s get down to business shall we. I have to wonder about your visit to our house, as my family can’t be on your Christmas card list anymore.”

Zeon Deikun chuckled as he set his coffee cup back on the saucer. “While it may be true that your father and older brothers attempted to assassinate me, it is also true that you, Kycilia and Garma had nothing to do with the incident. I have come to your home today to tell you that I’m putting your family under my protection, so that you and your brother and sister do not come to any harm for something which you had no involvement in.”

A look of both surprise and anger flashed across Dozel’s face all at once. “I thank you for your offer mister Prime Minister, but I’m quite capable of taking care of my family.” His expression finally settled on one of determination.

“I’m quite sure that you believe you are capable of doing so Dozel, but the mob I met outside seemed to be itching for the chance to test that theory and storm your home. I will NOT allow innocents to pay for the crimes of the guilty.” Zeon Deikun had adopted a serious tone as spoke and it seemed to deflate the ego of the large teenager sitting across from him. He continued, “I will not try to take over your family,” he gestured at Dozel with his free hand, “you are the head of this house and you must do what you think is best for your family, but I urge you to consider my offer.”

Dozel slumped in the chair, “I am ashamed of what my father and older brother’s attempted to do and find it very hard to believe that you hold no grudge against our family. He sat up straight and looked squarely into Zeon Deikun’s eyes. “I humbly accept your offer, and my only request is that you allow me to attend the Zeon Elite Forces Academy when I turn eighteen, so that I may repay you for what you are doing for my family here today?”

Zeon Deikun reached across the table and shook Dozel’s hand, “there is no need to repay me son, but if that is something you would like to do you will have my full support and my personal recommendation to enroll in the academy.” After forty five minutes Zeon Deikun concluded his visit to the Zabi household, which had included talking with Kycilia about school, and losing a few rounds of a video game with Garma. He was pleased to see that the crowd that had been there when he had arrived was gone when his car left the gate.

The computer intelligence specialist carefully worked his way through the Earth Federal Forces computer network. He was quite sure that there was no way that his hack could be traced, as his signal was being routed through 72 different servers on the Sides and on Earth. He opened up a file and started to read, looking for any evidence of something that might interest his government; about two thirds of the way down the document his eyes went wide. “Sir,” he called out to the watch officer, “I think you’d better take a look at this.”

The officer came over to the NCOs workstation and read the section of the document that the man indicated with his finger and his eyes went wide. “Copy this to your drive and print out a copy. I need to get in touch with command.”

The NCO looked up at the officer, “sir if I do that the Federation’s security network will see this intrusion and close this access point that we’ve found into their network.”

“We can always find another way in,” the officer said as he practically ran to the office he was occupying for the shift, “this needs to go up the chain fast.”

“Right sir,” the NCO replied and he copied the file off the Federation network, into a secure folder on his unit’s cloud server. About three seconds after this was done the Federation network noticed his intrusion and started to back trace his hack. The NCO cut off his hack at where it went through the servers of the Federation’s Military Academy at Nijmegen in Holland. Hopefully the Federation’s computer techies would think the hack originated there and look in a direction that would not lead them to the Republic of Zeon.

30 minutes after the watch officer had contacted ZEF High Command, a patrol group had started towards the asteroid prison where the three Zabis were imprisoned. All attempts to raise the prison had failed and the patrol group was ordered to full acceleration.

Three hours after they had left their patrol station they arrived at the asteroid prison or, more accurately, what remained of it. So many missiles had hit the asteroid, that it had been fragmented into a small field of floating rocks and metal. The sensors of the patrol group picked up a few ghostly returns from, what one of the radar techs thought, was a group of Federal forces ships heading away from the wrecked asteroid. Search parties were dispatched, but the officer in charge of the patrol group had little hope of finding any survivors. He composed a dispatch that was communicated back to the High Command as soon as it was completed.

Twenty minutes after the dispatch had been received at High Command a copy of it was in Zeon Deikun’s hand and he was aware that the conspirators were missing, assumed dead and that the Federation looked like it had a hand in the attempted Coup by the former head of the Zabi family and his two oldest sons.

U.C. 0069, June
New Berlin, Side 3
Z.E.F. Academy

Dozel Zabi, so far, had loved his time at the premier military academy in the Republic. Sure he had gotten a lot of unfriendly looks when he had first arrived at the prestigious school a week before, but he was determined to win those people over by excelling at everything the school could throw at him. So far he was living up to that by acing the written entrance exam and scoring exceptionally high on the physical exam.

He was currently crossing the campus, heading to his military history class. He looked around at all the students in uniform making their ways about or, in the case of some of the older students, relaxing in the quad soaking in the light that the artificial sun pumped out. “One day I’ll be a leader of these people,” he muttered to himself, “to hell what they think about me right now.”

The voyage had been a long one, but they had finally reached their destination. The officer in command of the construction fleet surveyed the large asteroid that floated just outside the view port. His mission over the next few years was to change that lifeless hunk of rock into a vibrant colony that would also function as a way station for the Energy Fleets of the Republic.

Well, he thought to himself, he had more than was needed to do that. There were almost 50,000 colonists in the transport vessels. They were all volunteers and would start the population of the asteroid colony after they had finished constructing the basic facilities. It would take a few years, but eventually the Republic of Zeon would have the farthest colony from Earth and the people would be one step closer to realizing the ideals of their leader and completely free themselves from the grip of the Earth’s gravity.

Professor Minovsky couldn’t believe that he had forgotten such important data back at the lab. “I mustn’t do this again,” he muttered to himself as he unlocked the door to his personal lab in the university’s Oppenheimer Hall. That day he had made a breakthrough in the miniaturization of the mega-particle cannon design that he and the rest of the Minovsky Physics Society had developed over countless sleepless nights. He had wanted to take the data home but had been distracted by a question posed by a colleague and forgot to copy the data to his secure portable data storage device before he went back to his home for the evening. Since the data was stored on a non-networked computer he had to come all the way back to the lab to copy it so that he could work on it at his home.

He opened the door to the lab and entered the mostly dark room, the only light coming from a few computer monitors that had been left on. Odd, he though as he crossed the room to the terminal he needed to use, he was sure that all the computers had been turned off when he had left earlier. “No matter,” he mumbled to himself as he reached the computer console that he wanted and punched in his access code to download the file he needed.

“Thank you for that professor,” a voice came from the darkness behind where the work station stood.

Dr. Minovsky looked up and saw a faint outline of a man in the darkness. He was pointing a gun at the professor’s mid-section. “What can I do for you?” he asked.

“You can die,” and the gun flashed.

Professor Minovsky saw the flash and felt the impact of the first round, but not the two that followed it. He collapsed to the floor and the last thing he saw, before his eyes closed for that last time, was a shoe as someone stepped up to the console and started typing.

The next morning a grad student, that was working as a research assistant while she finished her degree in theoretical nuclear physics, entered the lab to get things set up for the professor’s work day. Her scream was loud enough to summon every single security guard in the building. Just over an hour after that, ZEF Intelligence officers were swarming over the lab with fine tooth combs and they found that huge amounts of data had been erased from the lab’s data banks by someone using Professor Minovsky’s security code, what they didn’t know was that that data had been copied before it had been erased.

U.C. 0074, February 7
Zum City, Side 3
Steps of the Parliament Building

Zeon Zum Deikun was nervous. He was always like this before he made speeches, but this one was more important than all the previous ones that he’d made before. He was about to make a speech, outlining his beliefs about how humanity should move into space for the double benefit of expanding their own horizons and to allow an exhausted Earth time to recover through its own natural processes.

“Sir?” an aid appeared at his side, “it’s time.”

Zeon Deikun stood straight; he had been leaning against a stone pillar when the aid had spoken to him. He then followed the aid out a set of gold framed double doors and out onto the top step of the parliament building’s marble front steps. The roar of the crowd was deafening and nearly knocked him back into the building. He had to fight his way to the ornate wooden podium that was topped with a virtual forest of microphones that would carry his voice throughout the Earth Sphere.

I’m lucky that this podium covers my knees, he thought to himself as he surveyed the throngs of people in front of him, or they’d be able to see them knocking together and would know how nervous I was.

He raised one of his hands and almost instantly the mass of humanity in front of him fell almost silent and he began to speak. “Today I stand before you as the leader of a nation, but I wish to speak to you as a single man. Today I speak to every human being in space and on Earth so that they may hear and understand what it is that I wish to accomplish. For many years it has been my wish for all of humanity to move into space to allow the planet to recover from man’s foolish and destructive childhood.”

“Humanity has grown out of its childhood and must move on and expand its horizons past simple survival and the petty bickering that it brings about. Moving to space allows for the expansion of the human consciousness and once the soul is no longer bound by Earth’s gravity, people will evolve into a new type of being. These “Newtypes” are not super human, they are simply able to communicate and understand on a deeper level than people have ever been able to before, this will lead to the elimination of conflict and a more peaceful existence for humanity.”

U.C. 0074, February 7
Jaburo, South America
Earth Federation High Council Conference Room

There was silence around the huge conference table that occupied the center of the large room. The officers and politicians stared at the large screen at the far end in utter amazement of what they were hearing from Side 3.

“This is utter lunacy,” an overweight politician spouted as Zeon Deikun stepped away from the podium, to an explosion of flash bulbs. “He can’t possibly believe that we’ll let him get away with this.”

“I think that’s exactly what he’s thinking,” grumbled an Admiral in an EFSF uniform. “He wants to turn the populace in the colonies against us by saying that they are superior to those who still live on Earth.”

“We need to look into these Newtype’s,” grumped another military man. “I think that he is down playing that so he can use them later if we decide to take some sort of action against him. And what he’s saying about how we should all move out into space to let the Earth rest? We did that already by tossing all those malcontents out into the colonies.”

The man at the head of the table had been quite to this point, now he spoke. “I think that we need to take these extremists in Side 3 very seriously. We also must identify these Newtypes in our population so that we can isolate, study, and find a way to control them before they take the chance to use whatever abilities they have developed to enforce their will on us, the rightful rulers of the Earth Sphere.”

The meeting went on but the decision had been made, Side 3 was to be embargoed and a detailed search was to be started to look for individuals that might be considered Newtypes.

“We have to go now!” Tem Ray’s voice was a loud whisper. “I’ve seen the data and criteria that the Federation’s going to use for its Newtype search and Amuro will fall squarely into their sights.”

“Can’t you use the influence your position offers to protect him?” his wife, Kamaria, hissed back at him.

“Not a chance,” Tem replied, slumping into a chair in the apartment’s living room. “According to my friend, over in the biology division, these orders are from the very top and are getting some serious oversight from military authorities. I have some pull in the engineering division, but that’s it.”

“What are we going to do?” Kamaria said as she slowly lowered herself onto the couch across the coffee table from her husband, “we can’t just let them take our son.”

“Where could we go?” Kamaria was exasperated now, “the Federation will find us where ever we go!”

That question had Tem Ray stumped, and it annoyed him greatly. Where WOULD he and his family be safe from the Federation government? Then it came to him, like Archimedes discovering the principle of buoyancy, EUREKA he thought. “We could go to Side 3.”

“Side 3, would they even take us?” his wife was looking at him like he was insane.

“We can request political asylum,” Tem’s mind was working a mile a minute now, “I could also sweeten the chances with technical data from my lab.”

That statement made his wife stiffen straight up in her seat on the couch. “Isn’t that dangerous? Won’t you get caught?”

“It’s unlikely. I have the right clearance to get my hands on quite a bit of precious data and much of it would be useful to the government on Side 3.” He stood, “I’m going to the lab right now, I need you to book us a set of tickets to Hong Kong, I have a friend at Lou and Co. and he can get us shuttle tickets to Von Braun on the moon. From there we should be able to get to Side 3 with no issue.”

With that he stood and headed for the door, but before he got there he noticed his son, Amuro, looking at him out of the hallway which lead to the bedrooms. He knelt down and put a hand on his son’s shoulder.

“Were you and mom fighting?”

“No, we were just having a discussion and we’re OK now.” Tem Ray looked into his son’s, still worried face; the boy was so perceptive it amazed him, “we’re going to go on a vacation. How does that sound?”

The boy instantly brightened at that, “REALLY!?! Where are we going?”

“We haven’t really decided yet, but I’m sure you’ll love it. Now I have to go to work for a little bit, but I need you to pack a bag and help your mother get ready because we’ll be leaving as soon as I get back.”

“OK,” and he rushed down the hall to his room.

Tem grabbed his ID lanyard from its hook by the door and left the apartment for the short walk to the Federation Engineering lab where he worked. When he reached the entrance he swiped his card over the RFID reader and the lock on the buildings double glass doors clicked open. Pulling them open he nodded to the bored looking Federation Guard at the security station and headed for the elevator.

He knew that if he just moved the data to one of his portable work stations and then left the building right away, the data security people would take notice. He would take advantage of one of the habits that he had. Whenever he took his lunch break, he would download large amounts of data onto his mobile work station and take it with him to work on while he ate. The data security office had chided him for the practice, but his status as a lead engineer in the department allowed him quite a bit of leeway.

The morning went by relatively normally. Tem was working on changing the theory of the mega particle beam, which had been handed to him with no information on where it had come from, into a working prototype that could be mounted on the new warships that were being built by the dozen in the industrial section.

By the time lunch came around he had almost 75% of his working database on his mobile work station. Looking at the clock in the corner of the screen he noted the time and knew that by now his wife would have the tickets to Hong Kong. He closed the screen of the work station, put it in his bag and simply walked out of the building like he was headed for lunch in the commercial block, instead doubling back and heading to his apartment. Forty five minutes later he and his wife and son were on a sub-orbital flight to Hong Kong and an hour after arriving there they had new identities and were on a shuttle bound for Von Braun. It wasn’t until the middle of the next day that he was missed and Federation security personnel were informed by a disbelieving staff that Dr. Ray had taken almost all their data, destroyed the backups and apparently fled with his family.

U.C. 0074, March 1
Zum City, Side 3
Docking Bay 94

Zeon Deikun and several of his civil and military advisers stood, awaiting the arrival of the shuttle that held the biggest intelligence coupé ever pulled off… if the intelligence agents on the moon were even telling half-truths. The anticipation of the representatives from ZEF Intelligence was almost palpable, as they had been shut out of Federation technical data for over 18 months.

The shuttle pulled into the bay, killed the last of its forward momentum and used its maneuvering thrusters to land itself on extended gear. The passenger umbilical extended and sealed itself around the shuttle’s hatch, with the spaceport hatch automatically un-dogging and opening when pressure inside the umbilical had equalized.

There was the slight metallic clang as the shuttle hatch was opened and a moment later two large men in dark suits and sunglasses stepped into the waiting area from the shuttle. These two were from ZEF security and upon recognizing the leader of their nation they snapped to attention and saluted.

Zeon Deikun, never a military man himself, nodded his recognition to the two men and they dropped their salutes and split apart to stand at either side of the open hatch. The two men were so huge that none of the people in the waiting area had been able to see behind them, but now their movement revealed five people. Two of those people were more burly bodyguards, but the other three were a family of a father, mother and a son that looked to be about 10 or 11 years old.

Both the adults seemed weary from travel, their faces haggard, with dark circles under their eyes. The boy on the other hand seemed to be brimming with energy and was swiveling his head and eyes in every direction they could go to take in all the sights and sounds that he possibly could.

The Prime Minister stepped forward, extending his hand toward the man. “Welcome to the Republic of Zeon, I’m Zeon Deikun.” This took the man by surprise; Zeon Deikun guessed that he had not been expecting to be met by the leader of the nation to which he was defecting.

The man reached out and shook his hand. “I didn’t expect to be met by you Mr. Prime Minister.” He looked about and saw all the uniforms, “I expected to be met by more intelligence types.”

“Well they are here, chomping at the bit to talk to you, but I knew that I had to come after my Intelligence Chief told me about you. I had to come and personally thank you for the assistance that you are providing us.”

“I didn’t exactly do it for you or you nation,” Tem Ray said as the handshake ended. “I did it to protect my family.”

“Well whatever your reason Mr. Ray, I thank you. Now I believe that these military men would like to speak with you as soon as possible.”

At that point an intelligence officer, a Colonel, stepped forward, “If you would come with me Mr. and Mrs. Ray. We have quarters set up for you at ZEF HQ where we think you’ll be quite comfortable while we debrief you.”

The group, which had started to move, with the multitude of bodyguards ringing the outside, stopped and Tem Ray came to a sudden halt upon hearing the officer talk about their living arrangements. “I just escaped from one military, if it’s all the same to you I’d much prefer not to live inside a military facility.”

“I assure you Mr. Ray, that you and your family will be…”

Tem Ray cut the officer off with a shake of his head, “I do not want my family to stay in a military facility.”

Zeon Deikun could see that this was going to be an issue and decided to step in before things could get too out of hand. “Colonel I have a suggestion that might resolve this situation to everyone’s satisfaction.” The officer nodded for his head of state to continue. “Since it would seem that Mr. Ray is quite adamant about not staying in a military facility and I’m sure that you’d like him in one for his own safety I propose a compromise. My residence is well protected, suiting your needs Colonel and it is not a military facility, but rather a home and I believe that this would suit your request Mr. Ray.”

Zeon Deikun could see that he had again caught the Federation engineer off guard. “That is a most generous offer Mr. Prime Minister and I humbly accept your hospitality.”

Zeon Deikun turned to the intelligence officer, “is this acceptable for you Colonel?”

“Perfectly sir, as you stated we are most concerned about Mr. Ray’s and his family’s safety. The Prime Minister’s residence is more than adequate for this. We can move Mr. Ray and his wife to and from ZEF HQ using the residence’s basement parking lot and a secure convoy. This will keep Federation agents from discovering their location easily and keep them protected.”

“Does my wife have to come too?”

“Please don’t speak for me Tem” Kamaria said, speaking for the first time. “I did work as a secretary for an Admiral. I heard things, maybe what I heard could be useful to you.”

“We are always interested in what the Federation military is thinking,” the Colonel confirmed, nodding his head vigorously.

Zeon Deikun saw an issue coming up. “You needn’t worry about your son Mr. and Mrs. Ray. I have a daughter about your son’s age and a son that’s a few years older. I’m sure that they can keep your son entertained while you are out and as soon as you’re settled I’ll arrange for him to work with the same tutor that works with Casval and Artesia.”

“That is more than generous sir,” Tem Ray said and he turned to his son, “Amuro how does that sound.”

“What was that dad?” Amuro hadn’t heard a single word that the adults had been talking about since the shuttle had pulled into the docking bay.

“We’re going to be staying at Minister Deikun’s home and he has a daughter around your age and a son a couple of years older. Once we get settled he’s also going to arrange for you learn from the same tutor that teaches his children.”

“That sounds pretty cool,” Amuro said, still obviously distracted by the new surroundings.

“Well now that that’s all settled, shall we proceed?” Zeon Deikun got a nod from Tem and Kamaria Ray, gave a nod to the head bodyguard and the knot of military personnel and civilians proceeded out of the spaceport and into the colony interior.

“ARTY, ARTY, Where are you?” Casval Rem Deikun shouted as he walked down the central hallway of the second floor of the house. A girl, three years younger than him and with the same platinum blond hair came out of a room several doors down from where he stood.

“DON’T CALL ME THAT CAS!” Casval’s younger sister Artesia Som Deikun had anger on her face and death in her eyes, well as much death as an 11 year old girl could muster. Her eyebrows knitted together and her eyes narrowed as she did her level best to stare her brother to death.

He raised his hands in mock surrender. “OK, OK, please don’t kill me, but I had to get your attention somehow. If I didn’t your nose would still be in a book and I wouldn’t be able to tell you about the surprise that I have.”

That shade of anger disappeared off his sister’s face; she loved surprises and presents too. “What is it?!?”

Casval smiled. He loved his little sister very much, despite how much he teased her sometimes. “Dad just called and talked to mom and she told me that we’re going to be having some house guests for the foreseeable future.”

Artesia looked crestfallen, “why would I care about a bunch of stuffy adults staying here? They’re no fun”

“Ah, but you didn’t let me get to the best part yet.” A slightly evil grin spread across Casval’s face, “they have a son, I think he’s a year younger than you and it’s going to be our responsibility to take care of him and keep him entertained. Mom said that his parents are going to be very busy and he doesn’t have a school to go to so he’ll be joining us when the tutors come.”

“I get a little brother?” a look of wonder spreading over her face.

“Well not really. You don’t get to keep him; he’s not a toy after all, but while he IS here I guess you will have a little brother, yes.”

“Yay!” Artesia raced back into the room that she had originally come from and then the air was filled with clattering, banging and scuffing. Casval; being naturally curious now, wandered down the hall and leaned against the doorframe into his sister’s room and was amazed at what he saw. She was running back and forth picking up the books and toys that were scattered across the floor, bed and desk.

Artesia moved over to the book case, her arms almost overflowing with a load of books that she had just gathered. “I’m going to be a big sister now. I have to set an example and I want it to be a good one and I can’t do that with a messy room.”

He left his sister to her feverish preparations and headed to the library, there was a book there on small unit tactics that he wanted to look at. He had always liked the look of the soldiers in their sharp uniforms and was certain that he wanted to be one when he grew up. He found the book he was looking for, Attacks and had been written by a now long dead German officer named Erwin Rommel. He settled into a high backed leather armchair and started absorbing the knowledge of the warriors that had gone before him and that he hoped to emulate one day.

----------

Amuro Ray was in total awe of everything that he had seen since they had left their apartment in Jaburo. First it had been the experience of flying in the sub orbital shuttle, then seeing the huge city of Hong Kong, then launching into space, then the underground lunar city of Von Braun and finally the huge floating cylinder that was the capitol colony of the Side 3 colony cluster that composed the Republic of Zeon.

Now he was being amazed by yet another thing as he looked out the window of the car at the passing scenery of the colony’s interior. He could see the city creeping up the interior walls of the cylinder until it disappeared in the clouds that were forming, for what his father and Zeon Deikun said, was a scheduled rain shower. He looked straight up through the limo’s sun roof and saw a final glimpse of massive lighting structure that provided artificial sunlight to the interior of this closed colony, before the clouds covered it completely.

The limo slowed, took a turn and Amuro turned his attention back to the things going on in his immediate vicinity. The limo was turning through a wrought iron gate that had a man in an ornate green and gold uniform standing at attention outside a small gatehouse. As their vehicle passed the man he snapped off a crisp salute and Amuro pressed his nose to the glass drinking in the sight. He, of course, had seen many men in uniform before, having lived in Jaburo, but this man was somehow… different.

The car had entered an area of well-kept green grass and the stark contrast from the urban sprawl that he’d seen since the car had left the spaceport. The driveway, or what he assumed was a driveway, curved to the left and he got the first look at the house his father said that they’d be staying at for a while. It was like nothing he’d ever seen before. He’d seen buildings this size before, ones of this size and larger were quite common in the underground base that he’d lived in for his entire life, but never had he seen one so large that was built for the soul purpose of housing a single family.

The building was three stories, painted a solid, almost blinding white, and had an enormous carport that reached out over the curved driveway and was held up by ornate columns. An ornate wrought iron lantern hung directly in the center of the covered area and he kept looking at it until the car turned to the point where he couldn’t see it anymore. The limo came to a halt and another ornately uniformed soldier stepped forward and opened the door that faced the building.

The man that his father had been talking to got out first, followed by his mother and father, and finally he got out of the vehicle and followed the adults inside. There they were met by a blonde woman that was introduced as the wife of the man that had welcomed them to the colony and Amuro heard now that he was the Prime Minister of Side 3 and then she stepped aside… Two children had been standing behind the woman and Amuro only caught a boy, several years older than him, before his vision was obscured by shoulder length blonde hair and a pair of arms wrapped around his neck and shoulders.

“Hi,” he heard the voice coming in his left ear, “my name’s Artesia. What’s yours?”

“Uh… my name is Amuro Ray,” he managed to stammer through the cloak of platinum locks even though the impact of the embrace had driven most of the air out of his chest.

“Artesia,” a woman’s voice chided, “I know you’re excited, but please refrain from smothering him, before you get a chance to know him.”

“OK mom” and the cloud of hair pulled away and he got his first, revealing the smiling face of the girl that had, for all intents and purposes, tackled him out of the blue. Bright blue eyes sparkled at him and the only thing that he could think was how different this girl was from all the ones back at his school in Jaburo. Those ones had always treated him with distain, calling him weird behind his back and going out of their way to avoid him.

With his vision cleared of hair he saw that the older boy had stepped forward and was offering his hand. “Sorry about my sister. She can get a little excited from time to time, my name’s Casval by the way.”

Amuro shook the older boy’s hand, “Amuro Ray.” He took a chance to look around now and saw that they were standing in a large entrance hall, with white marble floors and large gold framed paintings hung on the walls. The adults had moved off and looked to be deep in conversation.

Casval noticed his look around, “I assume it was mentioned that your parents would be rather busy for quite a while?”

“Yeah,” Amuro was still looking about, “your dad mentioned something like that to mine on the way here.”

“Well Amuro, it looks like my sister and I have been tasked with your entertainment and care while the adults take care of their business.”

“Really?” this thought excited Amuro as he looked back at Casval’s smiling sister, then another thought occurred to him. “What about school? I was in an advanced program back on Earth and was hoping to continue it here.”

Casval opened his mouth to respond, but before he could Artesia jumped in, grabbed Amuro’s hand and dragged him towards a set of sweeping, red carpeted, marble stairs. “We’ve got our own classroom upstairs; we have teachers that come here during the week and teach us.” They had reached the top of the stairs and she was now towing him down a hallway that was almost as richly appointed as the entrance hall downstairs. She turned to the left and banged through a pair of double doors, behind which lay a room that, while as fancy as the rest of the house, was set up as a classroom.

There was a lectern and smart board at one end of the room, with only a pair of smart desks sitting in front of them. Artesia let go of his hand and pirouetted across the room towards the far wall, which was mainly made up of floor to ceiling windows that had a slightly greenish hue to them.

“I see you noticed the windows,” Casval had apparently followed them upstairs.

“Yeah,” Amuro was still eying the strangely colored glass.

“It’s made from heavy duty, layered, bullet proof polycarbonate. Some people tried to assassinate my father a few years ago.” This information snapped Amuro’s head around as Casval continued. “Dad’s security people got super paranoid after that and replaced all the windows with these.”

Amuro looked back at Artesia and the excitement that she had been displaying only a moment earlier, was gone and had been replaced with a downcast expression that he instantly decided didn’t belong on her face. He wanted to do something, no, he felt like he needed to do something to cheer her up.

He walked across the room, to where she stood next to the desk closest to the windows and placed his hand on it. “Is this your desk?” She nodded, the unhappy expression still souring her face. “Well I’ve always wanted a window seat with a view, back in Jaburo all there was to see was rock and boring buildings. So if it’s OK with you I’ll put mine next to yours.”

That did it, the unhappy look was gone and had been replaced with an even brighter smile than she had worn before. “REALLY?” she wrapped her arms around him again and planted a kiss on his cheek, stunning him so much he just stammered like an idiot.

Leaning in the doorway Casval shook his head, “what am I going to do with you sis? If you keep up like this he’s gonna have a heart attack and die.”

Artesia stuck out her tongue at her brother and went back to hugging a confused Amuro. “You be quiet Cas, or else.”

“Whatever Artesia,” he stood from his leaning position, “I’ll let you show him to his room.” He turned and walked down the hall, “see you at dinner Amuro.”

“See you later,” was all that he managed to say. It’s certainly going to be interesting living here, he thought to himself, Artesia dragged him the opposite way down the hallway towards the room that she said was going to be his.

U.C. 0074, October 21
Zum City, Side 3
Zeonic Company Headquarters

The facility was huge; Tem Ray observed as the Prime Minister’s limousine pulled up to the front of the headquarters building. The Zeonic Company was the semi-national defense company of Side 3, and the facility that made up their headquarters was extremely impressive. It took up a full five kilometers at the end of the colony farthest from the civilian spaceport and stretched over half way around the colony’s internal circumference.

A representative of the company was in the car and noticed that the scientist’s attention was drawn to the facility. “This is our primary R&D facility and test area. We have a marked test area outside the colony for zero-g tests and most of our area inside the colony is a dedicated test range. This building here,” he indicated the one that the car had just stopped in front of with his hand, “is our main corporate administration building and there are several other that house our R&D teams. We have some manufacturing capability here, which is located inside the colony’s hull.”

“So what will I be working on if I decide to work here?” Tem asked the representative as they walked up the concrete steps, through the automatic sliding glass doors and into the lobby, the floor of which had a mosaic of corporate logo on it. “I’m an expert in high energy physics and robotics and I don’t see anything here that indicates that my expertise would be of much use.”

The representative smiled, “We have a project going that just might benefit from you skills. It’s actually good that you’re here Mr. Prime Minister; it’ll save you a trip as we can demonstrate our current project for you now, rather than calling you down here at a later date. If you gentlemen will follow me,” he led them to an electric cart. Once Tem, Prime Minister Deikun and the minister’s security detail, seated themselves he drove the vehicle out of a bay door in the rear of the building and into an area that looked much like a college campus quad.

The representative continued to talk as they left the “quad” and headed down a full sized road into a thickly wooded area. “For security reasons we’re doing this testing in a very remote part of our complex, so it’s going to take about 20 to 25 minutes to get there.”

Zeon Deikun turned to Tem, “I hear that your son is getting along quite well with my son and daughter. Sadly I’ve been very busy and haven’t had the time that I’d like to spend with them. My wife says he’s been enjoying the classes and spending much of his free time with Casval and Artesia.”

A tight smile crossed Tem’s face. “To be honest my wife and I haven’t had much time to spend with Amuro over the years. I would get wrapped up in my work and she would have to work extra to pay for his private school. He learned to be relatively self-sufficient at an early age, but I’ve always felt like he was lonely being an only child.”

Much to Tem’s surprise, this caused Zeon Deikun to laugh. After a few moments of this the politician wiped a tear from his eye, “I’m sorry. You must think me terribly rude, but I think that he’s not an only child anymore. My daughter announced quite proudly that she now had a little brother, the very first night that you and your family stayed at the house.”

“So that’s what it is,” his smile softened into something more relaxed and natural. “My wife and I have noticed a change in him over the last several months, but we didn’t know why. By the way, I was wondering if you had any idea of where we could find a home in a good school district? We can’t stay in your house forever.”

“If I may interject gentlemen,” the representative spoke up from the car’s driver seat. “I apologize for over hearing, but I’d like to inform you Dr. Ray that we have a house available on the grounds for your family. We don’t have a school nearby, but we will be more than willing to provide transport for your son to any school in Zum City.”

Zeon Deikun smiled, “well there’s one of your problems solved Tem. As for the school, he is more than welcome to keep coming to the house. My son and daughter especially, would be thrilled to keep him in their class and the teachers are thrilled to be teaching such a bright student. Their math instructor has recently told my wife that he would like to bring in a fellow instructor from the Institute of Technology to teach Amuro. He was quite embarrassed to admit that his abilities as a teacher are really being pressed by your son.”

Tem smiled, he liked hearing how gifted his son was, but the smile lessened a little bit when he remembered that his son’s suspected gifts were the reason that he and his family had to flee the Earth. “Well it does sound like my problems will be solved,” he paused and looked at the company rep, “if I decide to work here that is.”

This got a warm, corporate, smile from the man. “Like I said Dr. Ray, I’m sure you’ll want to work on this project once you see what we have going on.” The cart rounded one last turn and they spotted a clearing ahead. “Were here,” the man said with an almost robotic cheerfulness in his voice.

In the center of the clearing there were a large collection of trailer offices and a cloth covered scaffold about 20 meters tall. The representative pulled the electric cart to a stop next to one of trailers and he had his passengers got out, with the Prime Minister’s body guards spreading out to make a cordon around the man they were charged with protecting.

As they approached one of the trailers the door banged open with so much speed that the body guards were all reaching inside their suit jackets, for the 9mm automatics in their special speed draw holsters. “Hold your fire boys,” Zeon Deikun held up a hand, “I have a sneaking suspicion that he’s not here to kill me.”

The man standing in the open door was in his middle 50’s, with fly away gray hair and was wearing an oil stained pair of coveralls. He hurried down the metal steps, past the body guards and the Prime Minister and in about half a second he was shaking one of Tem’s hands with both of his. “It’s a great honor to meet you Dr. Ray. I’ve been reading what work the Earth Federation has let you publish and I’m very excited to have you here to see my project.”

“Uh… thanks,” Tem said as he massaged his shoulder. It felt like the man had wrenched it out of its socket. “So exactly what is it you’re working on here?”

“I’ll show you,” he lead the party around the scaffolding and Tem Ray came face to face with a 17.5 meter tall machine of steel. “This is the MS-05 Zaku,” there was pride in the man’s voice, “the Republic’s first true mobile suit and it’s almost combat ready.”

Staring up at the magnificent machine Tem spoke with a little awe in his voice, “I think I’ll be working here after all.”

U.C. 0075, January 7
Zum City, Side 3
Prime Minister’s Residence

It was a bright day for a change. Zeon Deikun didn’t have anything on his schedule except for a trip with Kycilia, to a presentation that she was holding at the Republic of Zeon Institute of Technology. She was double majoring in engineering in both biology and engineering and by all accounts, was completely blowing the staff of the prestigious institution away with her work. He checked his tie in the mirror one last time and left the bedroom, heading down the sweeping stairs to the house’s main reception hall.

There, in the middle of the polished marble floor, stood Kycilia. On top of double majoring she was also in the school’s ROTC program and was wearing a ZEF officer’s uniform that had no rank insignia, indicating that she was still a cadet. She noticed him as he neared the bottom of the stairs and turned to face him, snapping off a crisp salute.

“Good morning sir,” the language was crisp and military.

“Good morning Kycilia,” Zeon Deikun retuned the salute in his normal informal manner, “there’s really no need to stand on ceremony with me.”

“Quite the contrary sir,” she dropped her salute, “it is all the more important that I do, so as to show others that I do not hold what station I may in the future, due to the influence of the people I know.” She softened a little, “but I guess here it’s OK to be a little more human” and she strode quickly across the floor and wrapped her arms around the man that she came to call “Uncle”.

He gave her a squeeze back, “I’m looking forward to your presentation. What’s it about again? I know you mentioned it to me, but I seem to have forgotten.”

Kycilia flashed a smile, “well then I guess you’ll just have to wait and find out,” she pushed through the doors and he caught a glimpse of the buildings across the street from the house. On the roof of one, somewhere near the middle, there was a white-yellow flash. He didn’t think about what it was, maybe a reflection of something indiscriminate, but Kycilia had seen it too.

“SNIPER!” she yelled, tackling her uncle to the ground. The next few fractions of a second seemed to stretch into minutes, for the politician who had never experienced combat before. As they fell towards the ground he was looking up at his adopted niece, and saw her left shoulder get slammed backwards, as if it were hit with a sledge hammer and a gout of blood erupted behind her.

Zeon Deikun landed on his back and Kycilia landed about a foot from him, partway between landing on her back and side. Just as he felt the impact of his landing, the crack of what only could be another round, passed close over his point. He heard another sound. It didn’t sound like the crack of another round passing over him, more like the roar of a nearby high power rifle and he realized it was one of the counter sniper teams that were stationed on the roof.

The rifle on the roof roared again and he was suddenly surrounded by men and women in black suits. They dragged him and Kycilia to their feet, his niece let out a cry of pain as they wrenched her injured shoulder and once they were part of the way up the body guards literally dragged them back into the house, into an area that was out of the line if fire.

There, time seemed to fall back into place. A bodyguard’s face appeared in front of his. “You OK sir?” the man’s face was filled with concern.

“Yes I’m fine, now look after Kycilia.”

“Will do sir,” and the bodyguard moved over to where his niece sat on the floor, propped up against the wall, her face contorted with the pain of the injury. At that moment a man in a military uniform showed up with a red, medium sized, duffle bag that had a white cross on the side.

“You,” he pointed at the medic as the man started to come towards him, “I’m fine, go help her,” he moved his finger to point at where his niece sat. The man nodded and moved off to follow the order he had been given. Now Zeon Deikun noticed the head of his detail, standing slightly down the hall, directing the chaotic symphony of people around the Prime Minister. Zeon Deikun waved him over and the man trotted over.

“What do you need sir?” that man was obviously shaken with the level of his failure.

“What happened?” he wanted to know how this event had come to pass.

“Apparently enemy agents snuck up and silently took out our sniper team on one of the buildings across the street. It couldn’t have been more that 15 minutes before they took their shot. The counter sniper team on the roof took them both out and we have an investigation team over there now, with a team from military intelligence on their way here to assist.”

Zeon Deikun nodded. It had happened again, someone had tried to kill him. Who had it been this time and what might the repercussions be? Three hours later he knew one and that made him seriously worry about the other. The Intel people had confirmed that one of the men across the street was an agent of Earth Federation Intelligence.

U.C. 0075, April 14
Zum City, Side 3
Zeonic Company Headquarters

Tem Ray sat at one end of the long conference table, the rotating logo of the Zeonic Company on a large screen behind him. A few of his fellow engineers sat in the seats nearest to him and the rest of the seats at the table sat empty, waiting for the visitors that were to be there at any moment. He ran his fingers through his hair as he looked over his notes again and realized something. He was nervous. Before he really got a chance to wonder why he suddenly felt like his insides were being churned by a blender, the door to the conference room opened and men in military uniforms and business suits began to flow in.

He stood and walked down the length of the table and started to greet the officers and officials that he knew. The last group of men entered, four of them were hulking brutes in black suits, black ties, white shirts and sunglasses. The fifth was Zeon Zum Deikun, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Zeon. Tem stretched out his hand, “it’s good to see you again Mr. Minister.”

“And it’s good to see you too,” the Prime Minister gave Tem a firm hand shake, “I hear that you have something interesting to show us?”

“That I do minister, that I; I mean WE do,” he waved his hand at the other engineers in the conference room. “I based my work off of these fine gentlemen’s efforts, without them I would have had much more work to do and wouldn’t have been able to update the new design so quickly.”

“Well this all sounds very impressive, why don’t we get started?”

“Oh, of course Mr. Minister,” Tem waived a hand at the seats that had been empty earlier. “Please take a seat and we’ll get started.” Tem waited for the Prime Minister to take his seat, he took the one at the end opposite the screen, and then he dove right into his presentation.

“As you all know the Zeonic Corporation has developed a combat ready mobile suit and had already begun working on an upgraded model. I’ve been made a part of the team that’s working on this upgrade and we already have a functioning prototype of this suit, the MS-06 Zaku II.”

A ZEF Colonel leaned forward and interrupted, “We just started initial production of the Zaku I and you’re telling us that it’s just going to be replaced!? Are you trying to gouge the Republic?”

Tem could see the man was boiling; he thought about it for a moment and realized that he was part of the Supply Corps. “That is not the case Colonel. I am trying to provide the Republic with a weapons system that can help counter the massive weight that the Earth Federation can bring to bear. The Zaku I, while an amazing feat of engineering, does not have what it takes to survive in a combat environment that is likely to occur if we become engaged in a full scale conflict with the Federation.”

The military man continued to grumble, “You guys at Zeonic told us that one of these Zaku I’s could hold its own against a Federation cruiser or an entire fighter squadron.”

“That estimation might have been true before the Federation’s massive military building project kicked into high gear, just before I defected. The number of ships and fighters they might throw at us here, simply boggles the mind. All of those warships are being equipped with mega-particle cannons, based on the theories that they stole when they killed Dr. Minovsky and I’m sad to say work that I did with that data.”

“Then why don’t we simply build more?”

“The Republic can’t compete with the Federation in terms of manpower, so we must therefore make our soldier as formidable as possible. This new Zaku II is a step in the right direction, but I hope to eventually build a unit that can wield the same weapon’s that a warship is equipped with.”

U.C. 0075, April 30
Zum City, Side 3
Zeon Elite Force HQ

“Sir, we simply can’t wait any longer. While our ZEF forces may be formidable they have little hope of standing against the forces that we now know the Fed’s to be building. We need to have a true military to have any hope of maintaining our independence.”

Zeon Deikun sat with his elbows propped on the table, head in his hands. He didn’t want this; he didn’t want his nation to need a full-fledged military, but it didn’t seem like there were any options left. He hadn’t even noticed that the military officer had kept speaking while he had been pondering the direction that his nation was being forced down.

“Sir we need to start building a fleet. We have designs ready to go into production and we are simply waiting on your approval. These ships will carry the new mobile suits to allow them to fight well outside their weight-class and prevail.”

“I know Colonel, I know… consider my approval given for the production of the Musai and Gwazine class ships. The ZEF is now to be designated the Republic of Zeon Military and all efforts are to be made towards voluntary recruitment. I have no wish to make people fight, who don’t want to.”

“Very well sir. We would also like to call all the Papua class ships, whose construction we helped fund, back into government service to help us jumpstart our supply fleet.”

“Yes, very well Colonel. God I hope we’re doing the right thing.”

“So do I sir, so do I.”

U.C. 0075, December 4
Zum City, Side 3
Space behind Side 3

Something good had happened for a change. Zeon Deikun fought to keep a smile off of his face and failed. In front of him, through the thick impact resistant glass and across several dozen miles of empty space, sat the Republic’s Energy Fleet. The massive starships had been in easy radio range for months now, but there was something about having the ships back within range of Side 3. There was even a bonus to go along with the He3, which was the lifeblood of life in space, twelve of the massive tankers were towing three massive asteroids and the rest of the ships were apparently weighed down with resources that had been mined out of the Axis asteroid as the colonists that lived on that out of the way station worked to improve their home.

“Quite impressive isn’t it sir?”

“There’s no need to be so formal with me Maharaja. We’ve been friends for far too long for you to be so formal with me.”

A smile crossed the face of the well groomed military man, “Well sir I do have to keep up appearances.” He stared at the massive asteroids that Zeon Deikun was looking at through the thick glass of the shuttle. “These asteroids and their resources will give quite a boost to our economy and we can use them to harden the defenses of the Republic.”

“I know…” Zeon Deikun let his voice trail off, “I just wish we didn’t have to resort to this.”

Commodore Maharaja Karn put a hand on Deikun’s shoulder, “I know you don’t want this, my friend, but the sad reality is that we have no choice if we wish to keep the independence that you and so many others have worked so hard for here. The warning signals we are getting from the Federation, don’t give us much of a choice past preparing for a fight. We won’t start one, but we must be ready to protect ourselves if, and I fear, when the Earth Federation tries to take it away from us by force.”

Zeon Deikun turned away from looking at the fleet where shuttles were taking supplies, fuel and new personnel were being loaded onto the massive ships, so that they could make a speed run back to Jupiter. “Who’s the commander of the fleet, that’s going back to Jupiter Commodore?”

Karn looked down at a data pad that he had had tucked under his arm, “A Lieutenant Challia Bull. I assure you sir that despite his relatively low rank he is more than capable of commanding the fleet.”

“I have no doubts about that. If you chose him I’m sure that he’s more than capable of getting the Energy Fleet back out to Jupiter and back here with more Helium 3 and I fear that we are going to be in dire need of it over these next few years.

“I fear that you’re right, Mr. Prime Minister,” Maharaja looked back out at the resupplying fleet, “and sooner rather than later.”

His hand and the papers it held shook with rage, like the sunburst of a thermonuclear explosion, that was threatening to explode out of him. In all of his time as the Prime Minster of the Earth Federation he had never seen anything as ludicrous as the document that a messenger had just brought in to the room where he had been meeting with his full cabinet. He worked hard to calm himself, as it wouldn’t do blow up at the men seated at the table with him. They were the ones that were going to have to help him rectify the situation, which had just gotten worse. When he had gotten his anger to the point where he trusted himself to speak he addressed the assembled civilian and military leaders.

“It would seem that the situation in space has just gotten worse.” He tossed the document back on the table, “according to that document both Side’s 1 and 6 have decided to declare that they are leaving the Earth Federation and have asked that we recognize their right to self determination.”

There was general surprise around the table. The men, they were all men since the leader of the Earth Federation had very little use for the opinions of women on matters of state, started to shout outrage and ideas about what they should do to the treacherous spacenoids. The idea’s ranged from the rather mild, simply ignoring the declaration and carrying on business as usual, to reducing every colony at Lagrange 4 to radioactive slag.

“While I’m sure that we all would like the issue of these problem colonies to simply go away, we can’t do anything as extreme as attacking them. There are two reasons for this; first both Sides are major manufacturing centers, which we need to continue our build up our military strength to bring Side 3 back under our control. Second we don’t want to act too aggressively, as this might cause other colonies, or possibly whole Sides, to rebel against us.” He looked to the area of the conference table where his military chiefs sat, “we need a response that takes these factors into account.”

“Sir,” the man that leaned forward was the Chief of Operations for the growing Earth Federation Space Forces, “the colonies at Lagrange 4 may be major manufacturing centers, but they do rely on outside sources for their raw materials and certain other items. If we blockaded the two Sides we can force their economies to collapse, thus forcing them to capitulate to our demands.”

“Won’t that cut off food supplies and make us look like the aggressors, rather than the victims?” the Prime Minister was very concerned about how this would look in the media. “We need to control the information that gets out and I can’t have starving colonists on my hands.”

A smile crossed the military man’s face, “that won’t be an issue sir. Each individual colony is capable of supporting itself with the agricultural pods that they were built with and if there are ones that can’t anymore there are ones that can take up the slack. The blockade that I propose won’t be cutting off each individual colony, only the two Side’s as a whole.”

The Prime Minister looked at the head’s of his intelligence agencies. “What kind of response might we get from Side 3?”

“Well sir, the Republic…” his Director of Intelligence started.

“DO NOT CALL THEM THAT!” the Prime Minister bellowed at the man. “They are Side 3, we do not recognize their independence and we will never do so.” He looked back at the Chief of Operations, “set up your blockade. I want those two Sides cut off from the rest as soon as possible and as completely as possible.” He had completely forgotten to find out how Side 3 might respond to the actions that he had just ordered.

“It’s official Mr. Prime Minister. The Earth Federal Space Forces have blockaded the Sides at Lagrange 4 in response to their bid for independence. Their entire combined fleet has sortied from Luna II and has cut all the major and minor trade routes. The manufacturing and technology industries are starting to collapse. We are also starting to feel the pinch, as many of our smaller manufactured goods come from that Lagrange.”

“Is this all we can expect from the Earth Federation?” Zeon Deikun asked the room at large.

Maharaja Karn leaned forward in his seat at the long table, “sadly I believe it is sir. It would seem that the Federation is so worried about this, that they are willing to take very drastic action to keep control.” The high-ranking military man fiddled with the controls on the table in front of him and the main screen on one of the walls of the room came to life displaying a map of the colonies at Lagrange 4. Karn turned around to make sure that the correct map was being displayed and then turned back to face the collected military men and ministers.

“As you all can see, all the units that we know exist in the Earth Federal Space Forces have deployed from their bases in the other Sides and their asteroid base, Luna II. They have cut off all supplies going to the two Sides, with fleet sized elements blocking the main routes, task forces covering the secondary routes and small squadrons roving the areas in between the larger forces. These elements have completely sealed the borders and only a few small fast ships have made it through the blockade. The news from inside the Sides is grim. With the supplies of raw materials cut off their manufacturing base has collapsed dragging their economies to the brink. There are riots in the streets, some directed against the Federation forces stationed inside the colonies and some directed against the governments of the Sides themselves.”

Maharaja Karn continued, but Zeon Deikun was only half listening after the initial summary. He could only see two options open for himself and the Republic. They were either going to have to do nothing or they were going to have to act in direct opposition to the Earth Federation. He was going to send a strong note to the Earth Federation’s Prime Minister, but he really didn’t expect it to do all that much good. He was going to have to decide whether to commit the small forces of the Republic to relieve the two beleaguered clusters of colonies.

“Sir?” the questioning tone made Zeon Deikun look back up at the table.

“Sorry, what did you need?”

Maharaja Karn nodded, “this situation has us all looking for good solutions sir.” There were general murmurs of agreement from all the people around the long table. The officer continued, “I was wondering what orders might you have for the forces?”

“Does anyone think that this situation can be resolved diplomatically?” he asked the table wishing, hoping that one of his ministers might have an idea that hadn’t occurred to him yet. None of them said anything; with some of them looking down at the table embarrassed that they couldn’t think of anything. “Well then,” he continued, “I will be sending a note to the Federation’s Prime Minister, requesting that they lift their blockade and offering our offices as a third party negotiator to start talks between them and Sides 2 and 6.” He turned to look directly at Maharaja Karn, “at the same time Commodore, you will be preparing a supply fleet with appropriate escorts to be ready to make a run on the blockade. You are to command this force and I think that it should include a compliment of mobile suits from the training battalion.”

“Very well sir. I shall prepare the fleet at once.” He stood, saluted Zeon Deikun crisply, turned and moved quickly from the room.

“Well… why don’t we attempt to draft a letter to the Earth Federation to prevent any unpleasantness” and the politicians leaned forward to set themselves to the task of writing the carefully worded letter.

U.C. 0076, May 12
Zum City, Side 3
Military Port

The ship still has that “new” smell, thought Commodore Maharaja Karn as he pushed himself out of the lift and into the bridge of the Musai-Class light cruiser Austerlitz. This was one of the six Musai cruisers that were ready for operations and the Austerlitz was the only one with a Fleet Command room built into it, making it the flagship for the fleet that was preparing for the sortie to Lagrange 4.

“Nice isn’t it sir?” the ship’s commander, Captain Sanchez, came up next to where Karn had stopped his forward motion at the deck to overhead bridge windows.

“That it is Captain” he was looking out into the massive port where his other five Musais were making preparations to get underway “and I shall attempt to keep them in this condition too.”

“We’ll be able to take whatever the Fed’s can dish out at us sir” the younger officer pointed at where a brand new MS-06C were being loaded into the hanger of another one of the green painted cruisers, “those will give us the power we need to punch through the blockade.”

“I’m hoping that we won’t need to use them, past scaring the ZOINKS out of the Fed’s that is” Maharaja said with a predatory smile. He was still a military man after all and wanted to defeat his opponents, even if that simply meant making them soil their drawers and run away. “What is the fleet’s status Captain?”

Captain Sanchez, as the commander of the fleet’s flagship, also served as Maharaja’s Chief of Staff, the person in charge of all the administrative matters which Karn simply didn’t have time for. “The fleet will be ready for open space by 0600 tomorrow. The transports are ready now, as are all the Musais, except for the Waterloo, which is dealing with engine problems that cropped up during its initial shake-down trials last week.”

“Will the Waterloo be ready by 0600? I would rather go with five escorts, rather than take six and have to tow one when its engine’s fail.”

“Not to worry Commodore,” Captain Sanchez soothed, “the shipyard contractors have already located the issue and are currently working to correct it. They say that they should be done in the next two hours or so, giving Captain Schmidt time for a quick shakedown run before the 0600 deadline.”

“That’s excellent. Well we’ll see what the Feds think of us if we’re told to force our way through.”

“I bet there are going to be a lot of brown stains at Jaburo sir,” Captain Sanchez said as he adopted the same wolfish grin as his fleet commander.

U.C. 0076, May 13
Zum City, Side 3
Prime Minister’s Residence

Zeon Deikun sat at his desk, staring at the printout of the Federation’s response to the second letter he had written to them. This one wasn’t even signed by their Foreign Minister, but by some minor functionary of that ministry. That told him more than the letter itself, which was less than half a page long and said, in no uncertain terms, that the “rebellious colonies of Side 3” were to keep their noses out of official Earth Federation affairs if they knew what was good for them. He let out a sigh just as there was a knock on the door that lead to the hall. “Enter,” he said, wanting the distraction that a visitor might bring. He was delighted to see that it was his son Casval and right behind him was his sister, Zeon Deikun’s daughter, Artesia.

“You look down father. Is there anything that we might do to cheer you up?”

Zeon Deikun smiled. His children had always been perceptive to the emotions of those around them and their concern for his wellbeing was touching. “I need a distraction from all this,” he waved his hand to indicate the piles of paper on his desk, “let’s do something fun! What would you two like to do?”

“I want to go see Amuro,” piped up Artesia at once.

“I’d be OK with that,” said Casval, “as long as I can check out one of these new C-Type Zaku II’s while we’re down at Zeonic.”

“I bet Tem can arrange that,” a smile spread across Zeon Deikun’s face as he stood up from the desk. “Alright, let’s go,” and he and his two children left the office on their impromptu trip.

U.C. 0076, May 15
Zum City, Side 3
RZS Austerlitz, Military Port

Maharaja Karn stood over the main tactical display in the Austerlitz’s Fleet Command Center, one deck below the cruiser’s bridge. He was updating his plan of advance, with the latest data on EFSF blockade operations, when the comm at his station chirped to get his attention. He picked up the hand set, “Commodore Karn speaking.”

“Please hold for the Prime Minister Commodore,” a faceless comm officer said in a bored monotone.

A moment later there was a quiet “click” and Maharaja heard the sound of his longtime friend. “Commodore, you are to execute your plan to break the blockade of Lagrange 4immediately and with all haste.”

“I understand sir. Are there any other orders you have for me at this time?”

“You are not to engage EFSF units unless fired upon first, but I assume you have already figured this out. Other than that I will defer to your superior military judgment Maharaja. I wish you and your men good luck and god speed.”

“Thank you sir and now I must attend to my command.”

“I will not hinder you any further, stay safe my friend.”

“I will be,” and he broke the connection by hanging up the handset. He picked it up again, “get me Captain Sanchez and inform the fleet to prepare to execute Plan White.” The small group of ships that made up the bulk of the Republic of Zeon’s small fleet were about to head into harms way.”

U.C. 0076, May 17
Lagrange 4 Blockade Zone
EFSS Dublin

Commander Mark Davis was quite pleased with this deployment so far. He had been put in charge of a four-cruiser squadron patrolling an area between two secondary trade routes and he had already intercepted several civilian cargo ships attempting to get into, or out of the blockade zone. The four Salamis class cruisers were in a tight diamond formation and their precise station keeping made Davis swell with pride. He might get a promotion for his performance during this operation he was thinking when his sensor officer spoke up.

“Sir, we have multiple contacts bearing at 047 degrees.”

“Any ID’s on those ships?”

“Not yet sir, they’re not in range of our more precise sensors yet. All I can tell you is that it’s a big group, possibly 30 plus ships.”

“Well this might be the supply fleet that intelligence said sortied from Side 3.” A smile crept across his face. If this WAS the supply fleet from that rebel group of colonies on the dark side of the moon and he was able to stop it… his thoughts trailed off and he began to give orders to intercept. “Shake the squadron out into linear line formation, with 25km separation between ships,” he turned to the fighter controller, “pilots to their fighters and have them ready to launch in five minutes.” The crew bent to their tasks and the scramble alarm began to warble as the four cruisers began to break the tight formation that they had been holding.

“Sir the Saberfish are ready to launch.”

“Good, tell them to launch and scout out that fleet, I want a better idea of what’s out there.”

The squadron controller nodded and gave the order, “Alpha flight launch, as practiced Lt. Commander Bittle will take command of the flights from the other cruisers as leaders of the provisional squadron.”

“Roger that,” the Lt. Commanders voice came over the speakers at the fighter controller station, “Alpha flight launching.” And there was a slight shudder as the four FF-3 Saberfish fighters were ejected from the hard points underneath the Dublin. They flashed forward, their engines adding their sparkles to the sea of stars and were then joined by the flights of four from the other Salamis class cruisers.

Commander Davis smiled as he settled himself into his command chair. The foolish spacenoids had sent a supply convoy with no apparent escort. He guessed that they thought that they would be able to sneak the convoy through one of these supposedly unpatrolled areas; he was going to make them regret their foolishness. Little did he know that he was about to suffer a humiliation that would end his career in disgrace.

----------

Lagrange 4 Blockade Zone
Cockpit of Black Sheep Lead

Major Dozel Zabi shifted, trying to make himself comfortable in the pilot’s seat of his brand new MS-06C Zaku II. The seat, and the cockpit in general, just weren’t big enough for his massive frame and the fact that he was strapped into that seat just compounded the problem. However, he couldn’t have cared less. He was leading the 1st Provisional Mobile Suit Company into its first action, the debut of the Republic’s new weapons.

He was taking his suit and the other five Zaku II’s to mess with the four Federation cruisers, while the 12 Zaku IB’s had broken off earlier to mix themselves in with the Papua class transports and defend the heavily laden ships if the need arose. About ninety klicks behind his speeding mobile suit Commodore Karn had them spread out on a line, with their engines running at minimal power to make it as hard as possible for the Federation warships to detect them. Another thing that was going to make it hard on the Feds was the fact that the Zaku II’s and Musais were coming from directly above them, relatively speaking, as there is no “up” in space.

He checked the navigation display and saw that he needed to shift his suit’s course half a degree to maintain the optimal intercept on the group of Fed cruisers. “Black Sheep group one change course, pitch minus .5 degrees.” A chorus of confirmations came from the other pilots and Dozel shifted his course after he confirmed that all of the other suits had done so.

A panel to his left beeped, indicating that his suit was receiving a laser burst transmission from the Austerlitz. He flipped a toggle switch and a video window opened in the corner of his main forward monitor, “what can I do for you Commodore?”

“The supply fleet has reported that the Zaku I’s have reached them and dispersed themselves. They have also reported that the Salamis squadron’s Saberfish are about to make contact with them and will need about 15 minutes to return to the cruisers once you make contact.”

A smile crossed the face of Maharaja Karn, “I have no doubt that you will Major, but do remember that we are not here to start a war, but to get the supply fleet successfully to the colonies of Lagrange 4.” Dozel nodded in reply and Maharaja continued, “We will begin to broadcast Minovsky particles shortly and communication will become much more difficult. You are to proceed with plan Bravo 3.”

“Roger that Commodore, we shall be proceeding with plan Bravo 3 when the broadcast of Minovsky particles commences.” He saluted the screen and Maharaja Karn returned the salute and then broke the connection.

Deftly manipulating the controls, Dozel used the Zaku II’s free hand to wave the other five green painted mobile suits in closer. They all came close and when all the suits had grabbed one another, creating a chain, Dozel opened his suit’s “skin talk” channel and addressed the men under his direct command.

“We are to proceed with plan Bravo 3. The suits armed with the 120mm machine guns are to maneuver in close, buzzing the bridge and to look as menacing as possible without actually brining a weapon to bear. Make high speed passes, pop up in front of the bridge and flare your mono-eye, basically I just want you to show off how close you can get without physically coming in contact with their hull.”

“What about us sir?” a tinny voice came through the speakers in his normal suit’s helmet, the skin talk system still needed some work. The voice was that of 2nd Lieutenant Kathleen Hale and she was piloting one of the Zaku IIs armed with a 280mm bazooka.

“I am sorry to say that you won’t be joining in the acrobatics Lieutenant. You and Lieutenant Yates are to hang above the cruisers and cover them with your bazookas as a precaution. You are not to acquire targeting locks unless ordered to do so.”

Another chorus of confirmations came in over the skin talk channel and the suits broke the chain that they had made. They cruised on for another 3 minutes and then there was a sudden burst of static over all the radio channels, the Minovsky particle jamming had commenced and it was time for the mobile suits to move in. He pumped his Zaku II’s empty fist up and down and then pointed towards the four Salamis class ships. The mono-eyes of the other Zaku’s flared in answer and he and the other three “attacking” pilots pushed their suits to their full acceleration and rocketed towards their targets.

----------

Lagrange 4 Blockade Zone
EFSS Dublin

“What do you mean the comm is out?” Commander Davis spluttered at his communications officer.

“Sir the radar just got all fuzzy too. I think someone’s jamming it and I can’t find a frequency that’s free.”

Davis was about to start berating his sensor officer when something large and green blurred past the bridge windows. “WHAT WAS THAT!” he screamed, but he didn’t get an answer before a giant humanoid robot popped up in front of the bridge window.

“It’s a Zeek!” screamed the helmsman pointing at the insignia painted on one side of the massive robot’s chest. It then fired some thrusters and backed away from the Dublin’s bridge, rolling underneath the ship and coming up the other side and coming back towards the bridge at a high speed.

“He’s gonna hit us,” Davis squeaked, almost falling out of his command chair, but at the last second the robot flared and stopped with its head only a couple of yards from the bridge window. The mono-eye, which had been a lightish pink color, flared a deadly red color. “Come about! Get us out of here now!”

“Aye sir,” the helmsman spun the wheel to port.

“Sir I’ve gotten blinker light communications from the other ships and they say that they each have one of these things dogging them and the Yorkshire says that they’ve spotted two more above us and they appear to have heavy weapons!”

Davis didn’t want his first taskforce command to be destroyed by a few Zeon robots and, with out knowing it, did exactly what Maharaja Karn and Dozel Zabi had been hoping he would. He ordered his ships to turn about and they ran for the safety of a larger group of ships near one of the trade routes.

The supply fleet continued on to Sides 2 and 6 unhindered, with the escort cruisers and mobile suits joining them after they were sure that the four Salamis class were really running.

U.C. 0076, May 24
Jaburo, South America
Situation Room

The Earth Federation’s Prime Minster was staring at the screen that held a freeze frame image of the machine that had driven off the Dublin and its taskforce. A shudder went down his spine as he remembered what the military analysts had told him it might have been capable of. Armored better than a tank, more maneuverable than a front line space fighter while not as fast in a straight line. It was more than a match for anything that the Federation could field. “So…” he muttered to some EFSF officer or another behind him, “this is the thing that caused the commander of the Dublin to take his taskforce and retreat from his patrol zone?”

“So it would seem sir,” the officer’s voice came from over the Prime Minister’s shoulder, “there were apparently two more above the ships and they were armed with heavy weapons, we didn’t get any pictures of those.”

“WHY DIDN’T HE SHOOT THEM DOWN!” the Prime Minster raged. “They were right in front of him and I doubt that they could have armor that would protect them from the main guns.”

“Sir there were standing orders that they were not to engage Side 3 forces if it could be avoided.”

“WHO ISSUED THOSE ASSININE ORDERS!?” the Minister began raging again, “I want the man who gave those orders arrested immediately as he is obviously an agent of that bastard Deikun on Side 3.”

The military man quickly saluted the politician’s back and virtually flew from the room. The minister was fuming, now that the blockade had been broken and the Space Forces had been proven to be incompetent, he would have to accede to the demands of those rotten Spacenoids at Lagrange 4. He was never going to allow this to happen again. Controlling the colonies was far too important to the prosperity of the Earth and he was going to vastly strengthen the EFSF so that they would be able to keep the rest of the colonies under their control.

“We’re also going to have to figure out how to counter that,” he said to himself glaring at the still frozen frame of video on the large screen, the red mono-eyed head sending shivers down his spine again. He reached for a phone to call his chief of intelligence; he needed to have that technology so that he could force the colonies that were slipping through his grasp, back under the Federation’s control.

U.C. 0076, May 30
Zum City, Side 3
Prime Minister’s Residence

Zeon Deikun couldn’t help but smile the smile of a man that had just won. He was watching a news feed from the Side 6 colony of Libot and the political commentators were talking vigorously about the vote that was in progress there at this very moment. The male anchor with an overly white smile and hair with so much product in it that it looked like a dark brown, reflective, plastic blob, turned to his equally over makeuped female co-anchor, “so Lila, what are the exit polls looking like?

“Well Tom, it seems quite clear from the people we’ve talked to that the vote for independence from the Federation is going to pass with a 90%+ of the vote. The second item on the ballot is expected to pass as well but with a smaller landslide of only about 70%.”

“And what exactly is that second item Lila?”

“To put it simply it is a question put to the population of Side 6 by the legislature to see if they would like our government to partition for unification with the Republic of Zeon. Many feel that this is prudent due to the fact that the military forces of the Republic were the ones that broke the Federation blockade and they have been the one standing against the Federation’s oppression of the colonies the longest and that colonies standing together are stronger than trying to face them separately.”

Tom turned to face the camera again, “there is an almost identical vote going on in the colonies of our neighboring cluster of Side 2. From reports there the outcome is going to be quite similar and this leaves everyone wondering what reaction the Earth Federation will have to this turn of events that has severely wounded their government’s standing…”

There was a knock on the door and Zeon Deikun muted the television, “what is it?”

The door that was fit into the curved wall of the office cracked open and the bodyguard on duty stuck his head in, “sir the Parliamentary leaders are here and would like to speak with you.”

“I figured that they’d show up at some point today. Please show them in Clancy.” The bodyguard gave a quick nod and disappeared back into the empty secretary’s office. A moment later the two men came striding into the office.

“Congratulations Mr. Prime Minister,” the leader of the upper house boomed as he grasped Zeon Deikun’s hand in both of his and began to pump it up and down vigorously, “this is a great victory for the rights of Spacenoids.”

“That it is,” agreed Deikun finally freeing his hand from the man’s vice like grip, “but I fear that this is the last easy victory we will have on the road to freedom for all Spacenoids. The deployment of our mobile suits was enough to startle them, but I have no doubt that they are now working on their own mobile suit project to counter ours. I also fear that the next time one of the Sides tries to make a bid for independence from the Federation, they will respond with a much stronger show of force than they did this time.”

The leader of the lower house, a war-hawk of great note, spoke up, “then we must make our military more formidable so as to discourage any aggressive action on their part.”

Zeon Deikun grimaced, “I fear that you’re right. Despite my wish that the Federation Government will see reason and simply let the colonies go, it doesn’t seem like that is going to happen if their present actions are any indication.” He sighed, flopped back in his custom made office chair and waved the two men to sit in the chairs in front of his desk. “The buildup must continue or even accelerate, now that it looks like we’ll have a whole new Lagrange to defend.”
He pulled open a desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of real Tennessee bourbon and offered a glass to each of his guests. They each took one and there were several minutes of silence while the three men sat and enjoyed the superb dark amber liquor. Finally Zeon Deikun drained the last few drops from his tumbler and looked at the two men across his desk, “are the two houses going to support my proposals?”

“Of course sir,” they both spluttered at once.

The head of the lower house recovered first, “sir you have gotten us this far. You have survived two assassination attempts and the people love you for all you’ve done. Even if we didn’t want to back you we would be fools not to, the people would throw us out on our asses. So in short, yes mister Prime Minister, we do support you and will continue to do so as long as it takes.”

Zeon Deikun looked down into the bottom of his empty glass, “I dearly hope that it’s only a matter of time and doesn’t become a matter of lives.”

U.C. 0076, June 13
Zum City, Side 3
Prime Minister’s Residence

Zeon Deikun looked hard at the man across his desk, “I agree that we need to learn more about the potential of newtypes, but I fear that your research might lead to purely military applications.”

“But sir, you can’t deny that they have the potential to do many things both on and off the field of battle. To understand the whole you HAVE to research all the parts, I admit that it isn’t pleasant but we need to do it so that we don’t fall behind the Earth Federation, because I can guarantee you that the Fed’s will pour money into this once they get over their initial fear of newtypes. I can think of all the things that they’ll want to do,” he held up his fingers to tick off the items, “mind control, artificially enhanced new types, artificially created newtypes…”

Zeon Deikun held up his hand to stop the man, “I get your point Dr. Flanagan. I might not like it, but sadly many of the things that seem to be necessary these days seem to be things that I would rather not do.” He thought for a moment, using the excuse of looking over the document on his tablet again, he really didn’t want Flanagan to run this institute due to the fact that he’d been very tight with Gihren Zabi. Also, if the rumor mill was telling the truth, he was more interested in doing the types of experiments that he said the Federation would like to do, rather than the ones that were listed in the proposal.

He looked back up at the heavily bearded man across the desk, you will get your funding doctor and we have a facility on the lunar city of Granada that I think will suit you needs.” The man across the desk looked like he was about to thank him, but Deikun stopped him with an upheld finger. “I am still worried about the directions that this work might go so I’m going to assign you a partner who will be reporting to me directly and will have veto rights over the work you do.”

“Well I doubt the person I have in mind will hinder your work, in fact I bet they will be of great help. Also this “overseer” for lack of a better term is non-negotiable.”

That ended the meeting. Dr. Flanagan, wanting the funding, agreed to Zeon Deikun’s terms and left after saying that he looked forward to working with whomever the Prime Minister assigned to work with him. With his office empty again, Zeon Deikun picked up the phone and dialed a number from memory, after three rings the other end was picked up.

“Hullo…” came a groggy woman’s voice from the other end.

“Well a good afternoon to you too Ensign Kycilia, still recovering from the graduation festivities?” There was the sound of scuffling on the other end of the line and the thought of the unflappable Kycilia Zabi being flustered made him smile.

“This is quite the unexpected surprise Mr. Prime Minister, how may I be of assistance?”

Another groggy voice came over the receiver into Zeon Deikun’s ear, “who’s callin’ so early in the morning Kycilia…?”

The smile on Deikun’s face split into a wide grin as Kycilia hissed, at what had to be a man in her bed, to shut up. As if he hadn’t noticed a thing he continued, “I would like the pleasure of your company at the house this evening. I have a job for you and I think that it will be right up your alley.”

U.C. 0076, July 5
Granada, Dark Side of the Moon
Flanagan Institute

The institute had just finished being set up, it wasn’t even really finished as there was still furniture and equipment in crates and plastic wrap lining the hallways. Casval was amazed with everything that he saw around him, this was the place where he would learn to help his father in the best way he could think of. It had been quite the shouting match with his father when he had said that he wanted to come here. His father had wanted to know how he had even found out about the newly created research facility, but Casval didn’t blab on Kycilia, who had told him about her new assignment in confidence. After three days of fighting and sour looks his father had relented and said that Casval and Artesia, who had joined the argument on the second day on her brother’s side, could go to the institute as long as they continued their regular studies at the institute.

“Man this is some seriously awesome gear they’ve got here,” Casval looked back over his shoulder past his sister to where Amuro had his face pushed up against a plastic wrapped machine, trying to see through the multiple layers of clear wrapping plastic, “this is the new Zimmad XS-38 model brain wave scanner. This thing can pick up brain waves so accurately that it can almost read your mind.”

Amuro had wanted to join them as soon as Casval had told him about the facility; about 30 seconds after he got off the comm with Kycilia, and he had convinced his father that it would be perfectly safe if the children of the Prime Minister, his friends, were going there and that had been enough to convince him.

A head with long red hair popped out of a door in front of Casval, “hi guys,” Kycilia Zabi said and looked at Amuro, “yeah we got the best toys.” She motioned for them to follow her into the room, which turned out to be an office in the process of being put together. “Welcome to my new office,” she waved a hand around to encompass the room. “You guys will be spending a lot of time here as I’ll be continuing your general educations when you aren’t working with Dr. Flanagan.”

“Aw come on Cece,” Artesia pouted, “we’re here to test our potential as Newtypes and we still have to keep taking our regular classes too?”

Kycilia leaned across her desk with a playful grin on her face, “that you do young lady and I am a very, very demanding school master.”

Artesia looked crestfallen, as she had been telling Casval and Amuro the whole way to Grenada, that she had been hoped to hit up the malls in the city to hunt for the latest fashions. Now she knew that she wasn’t going to get a chance.

Kycilia must have been psychic, because right away she said, “it wouldn’t have been likely that the security people would have let you go into the city anyway. You are too well known and given the Federation’s willingness to act underhandedly even with heavy security it would be too risky to let any of you out of the facility. Thankfully this is a very large facility and it is connected to the military docks so there is more than enough room for your to explore in you off time.”

“Are there any mobile suits here at the facility?” There was hope in Amuro’s voice, “I know all about the Zaku II’s that my dad’s been working on, but I haven’t had a chance to pilot one yet.”

Kycilia shook her head, “we don’t have any yet, but even if we did you three are a ways off from climbing into the cockpit of one. We do however have a whole company’s worth of full motion simulators that we’ll be using during Dr. Flanagan’s tests.”

That made Casval’s ears perk up, “why are we going to be doing combat simulations? Dad isn’t going to like this.”

“He is fully aware of the test protocol and has approved it. I am here to make sure that nothing goes on that he would not approve of.”

That caught Casval off guard and his brain raced to catch up with the information that he had just received. His father must be much more worried about the Federation and its intentions than Casval had thought he’d been if he was willing to allow his own children to take part in experiments looking into the military capabilities of Newtypes. He looked back at Kycilia as she continued.

“Dr. Flanagan thinks and I agree that stressing an individual is the fastest way to reveal Newtype potential. The simulator is the best and safest way to do that.” She tapped a command on her data slate and minute later there was a knock on the frame of the door. “Enter,” Kycilia said and she stood up and moved towards the door as it slid open.

“Ensign Ridden, reporting as ordered.” Casval looked over the man who had just come through the door. He looked to be about nineteen or twenty, wore his peach blond hair in a slightly shaggy manor that wasn’t unlike Casval’s own, had piercing blue eyes and stood at close to six feet tall.

“Stand at ease Ensign,” Kycilia turned back to face Casval, Artesia and Amuro, “this is Ensign Johnny Ridden and he will be taking you to the apartment block where you three will be living. He also will be acting as your bodyguard and mobile suit instructor. He may be young, but I can assure you that he is a very good pilot and works closely with Zeonic and you father Amuro.”

“I think I’ve seen him around the testing grounds and dad showed me a video of one of his space maneuverability tests in a Zaku IIC,” he turned and looked at Casval and Artesia, “if we’re gonna learn how to pilot mobile suits we might as well learn from the best.

Out of the corner of his eye Casval saw the Ensign go bright red and a look of pride cross Kycilia’s face. So that’s what it was. He had heard his father talking with his mother sometime last month, about how he suspected that Kycilia had found herself a boyfriend, now Casval knew it was true. He could have some fun with this one.

“So it is true,” Kycilia whispered, “the basic Newtype philosophy is true.” She was looking over the data that had been generated by the first group exercises that Casval, Artesia and Amuro had run through. “Their ability to coordinate goes far beyond that of even experienced soldiers.”

“What was that babe?” Johnny’s voice drifted out of the suite’s bathroom.

“I was talking about the results we’ve been getting from those three. They’ve been just getting better and better and it’s only been three weeks since they got here.”

Johnny’s voice again drifted out of the bathroom along with a cloud of steam, “You’re telling me! I’m the one that’s been running aggressor for them and I’ve been hard pressed to keep beating them individually. Against two or more of them I don’t stand a chance, it’s all I can do just to survive the engagement.”

Kycilia went back to reading the collected data, but a few minutes later another thought occurred to her. “There’s one thing that worries me though,” she mused, “how are they going to react to the emotions of others on a real battlefield?”

Johnny came out of the bathroom, hair wet and tousled, with a towel around his waist. “You really care about them don’t you?”

“Casval and Artesia are practically family, Amuro reminds me of myself so much…” her voice trailed off

Johnny padded across the room, crawled onto the bed next to her; put his arm around one of her shoulders and pulled her up next to him, laying her head on his shoulder. “With luck, they’ll never have to find out.”

U.C. 0076, August 1
Lagrange 4
ZEF Taskforce 77

Lt. Colonel Dozel Zabi and Commodore Maharaja Karn stood at the forward bridge window of the Musai cruiser Mjölnir(2) looking out at the event occurring in front of them. There were dozens of ships out there with heavy tow cables attached to a massive asteroid. They weren’t actually towing in anymore, but rather slowing it down so it could fall into the orbit that the ZEF Operation’s Department had determined would be optimum to defend the two Sides at the Lagrange from possible aggression from the Federation’s military base on the similarly sized asteroid of Luna II at Lagrange 3.

“I hope that this isn’t going to be perceived as a provocation by the Federation sir.”

Karn sighed, “We don’t have much of a choice Colonel Zabi. The people of Sides 2 and 6 have chosen, quite dramatically I might add, to entrust us with their safety. This is the least aggressive way we could do that effectively. Also the construction of Solomon will boost the economies of both the Sides after the hit they took after leaving the Federation.”

“But sir the Federation will use it as an excuse for further action against us!”

“They’ll find one without our help, or they’ll just make one up.” The Commodore turned and pointed his finger at the rear bulkhead of the bridge, “it is our job to protect the innocent’s in those colonies behind us,” he turned back and pointed at the massive asteroid and that rock will be the gate keeper, the guard that shields them from harm.”

“But with sufficient resources the Federation’s fleet could simply outmaneuver the base.”

“There is no point to a shield if there is no spear to back it up. Task Force 77 will be strengthened and reconstituted as 4th Fleet and Stationed at Solomon and other colonies across the Lagrange.”

“Who will command this force sir?”

“You will Colonel. The Parliament has approved my appointment of you to command Solomon and 4th Fleet. The safety of this Lagrange is now in your hands Colonel, that’s full Colonel by the way, I hope you are ready for it.”

U.C. 0076, August 4
Zum City, Side 3
ZEF Headquarters

It had to be done, he did not want to do it, but he no longer had any choice. He stood at the lectern looking out at the faces turned up at him many were wearing uniforms and what he was about to do would fan the flames of a possible conflict. He took a deep breath “Men and women of the Zeon Elite Force as I’m sure you have heard by now we have begun to establish a major military facility at Lagrange 4 to defend Sides 2 and 6 from further aggression by the Federation. To coincide with the establishment of this space fortress of Solomon, I am announcing that the Zeon Elite Forces are going to be reorganized into the Republic of Zeon Military and it will consist of three main branches, the Navy, Army and Marine Corps.”

This sent a ripple through the sea of uniforms, Zeon Deikun continued. “We as a people do not wish for a conflict with the people of the Earth Federation, but the brutal actions of the Federation Government have forced our hand. They want to repress the freedoms of us and our fellow Spacenoids and if their actions to date are any indication they intend to do this through the use of armed force. You, the great people of the ZEF have been our shield for years, but now we need a larger one to protect those that have chosen to join us in our endeavor.”

He turned and waved to the side of the stage, “I would like to invite you to meet the man that has been chosen to lead you, Admiral Maharaja Karn.” By this time the Admiral was standing, at attention, next to the lectern and Zeon Deikun continued. “With minimal force he was able to break the Federation blockade and relieve the colonies of Lagrange 4 and I hope you will all follow his example. Now I promised to keep this short, as I’m sure you have better things to do than stand in formation and listen to me drone on,” a wave of laughter came from the group, but was instantly suppressed by a look from Maharaja. “I have never been a military man so I don’t know how to do what you do, but I will leave you these words of wisdom for the 26th President of the United States, ‘walk softly and carry a big stick’ thank you.”

He stepped back and wobbled a little, almost rolling his ankle. It was done; now he had to wait and see how the Earth Federation would respond. He doubted that it would be anything that he, or the people of the now much larger Republic of Zeon, would like.

U.C. 0076, September 20
Side 1, Shangri-La
Amara District

There were five of them. They sat around a cheap dining room table in a similarly cheap, rundown, apartment. There was one that sat at the head of the table and he, like the others, wore the well-used cloths of the working class of the colony, but unlike the others he was clean shaven and well groomed. “I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get hold of this Intel, but the Federation has really tightened security, both data and physical.”

“Don’t worry about it. What’d you find out?”

The clean shaven man continued. “The rumors are true. The Federation has been moving large numbers of troops into Sides 1, 4 and 5. The purpose of this move is to repress the demonstrations going on. Martial law will be imposed any day now and communications are already being monitored, with plans in place to cut them all together and isolate each colony. There will be mass arrests and the rules for use of force have been written so they can be applied loosely.”

“So basically they’re going to be allowed to shoot with whatever provocation they decide is ‘enough’ or maybe none at all.”

“That’s about the size of it,” the clean shaven man looked at the four other men at the table in turn and then continued. “Our organization doesn’t have the capability to oppose this kind of force, we must get help from the Republic” He looked down at his watch, “I have to get back to the base before I’m missed, but I’m calling a vote before I go, I vote to contact the Republic and let them know what is going on and ask for their help.” Having stated his opinion he turned and left the room stripping off the worker’s cloths as he did, revealing the uniform of a Lt. Commander in the Earth Federation Space Forces.

Fifteen minutes later a tight beam communication was sent out to a camouflaged receiver near Von Braun City on the Moon, twenty minutes later it was printed up and being walked into the office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Zeon.

U.C. 0076, September 22
Side 1, Shangri-La
300km Outside the Colony

The Trondheim hovered in space, 300+km from the civilian space docks of Side 1’s Shangri-La colony. The ship was one of the new Musai II class cruisers that had two horizontal hangers, one on each side of the upper superstructure, at the same moment both the forward hatches opened and the launch rails extended from the top and bottom of the hanger and a moment later four Zaku IIC’s had been flung out into space. They formed up and headed towards the colony which had been in open rebellion against the Federation for the last two days.

Inside the cockpit of the lead Zaku II Lieutenant J.G. Evan Hooker searched the end of the colony with the mobile suit’s main camera, switching the filters and finally spotting the low powered ultraviolet laser that was there to guide them to the hatch that was to allow them access to the locked down colony. “I’ve got the beacon, adjust Y-Axis course 2.3 degrees up and align with the beacon. Maneuvering thrusters only, no main engines, I don’t want the flare to give us away. The three other suits in his platoon gave hand signals to indicate they had received and understood the order and ten seconds later they were all moving in the correct direction.

When they reached the hull of the colony each suit performed a flip, much like a swimmer in the Olympics, landing feet first, with legs bending to absorb the force of the landing. They had landed around a square maintenance hatch which started to open just after the four suits landed, revealing an airlock barely large enough to fit one. “I’ll be going first then,” Evan crouched his mobile suit down and moved it into the airlock, as the hatch slid closed behind him his camera picked up movement, that wasn’t his suit, and pulled up a pop up window on his central main monitor. It was a man in a normal suit, waving his arms to get the Lieutenant’s attention.

Evan dropped his suit all the way to one knee and reached out the left hand, allowing the person to land on the open palm. The man grabbed the index finger to steady himself as Evan raised it up to the hatch of his cockpit, which he popped open as the hand came level with it.

“Welcome to Side 1, thanks for coming and we hope you enjoy your stay,” the man’s voice was loaded with sarcasm.

“Always wanted to visit,” answered Evan, “what can we help you with?”

“I am actually an officer with the Federation garrison here,” Evan recoiled in is cockpit chair a little. Noticing it the man smiled, “no worries Lieutenant,” he pointed at two men above the mobile suit, both were holding assault rifles. “I was one of the founders of this little movement; if I wasn’t trusted those two would have filled me full of holes by now.”

Evan was still suspicious, but he figured that his superiors wouldn’t have sent his unit here without solid knowledge of the situation. “Well OK then Mr. Federation Officer. Do you have a secure location for us to store our mobile suits?”

“Yes, we have a large warehouse near where we plan on holding the protest. It is secure and if we don’t end up needing you we’ll sneak you out tomorrow night.”

The airlock had finished cycling and the inner hatched opened revealing the night interior of the colony. Even though he had seen sights like this his entire life it still struck him with awe, “such an amazing sight.”

“That it is, that it is,” the Federation officer’s voice trailed off and he waved one of the assault rifle toting men down from the wall, “Morris will guide you to the warehouse we’ll have the rest of your men to you as quickly as we can and there will be a Intel team at the warehouse to keep you apprised of the situation at the protest.”

Without another word the Federation officer left the Zaku’s hand and was replaced by the man called Morris. “Let’s get a move on Lieutenant. Daybreak is in less than an hour.”

“Hold on then.” Evan moved his Zaku to the open inner hatch and pushed off into the Zero-G center of the colony.

U.C. 0076, September 22
Side 1, Shangri-La
Shigatse District

The resistance fighters had set up video cameras to watch the protest. The feeds lead to the large warehouse that they had the four Zakus of Evan’s platoon stashed in. There they watched the protest on a bank of monitors. Tear gas canisters flew, water cannons knocked swaths of protesters and the front ranks of protesters were battered by Federation soldiers in riot gear. To Evan’s eyes this already warranted an intervention by his platoon, but the resistance fighters assured him that this was nothing. There had been incidents before, where the Federal troops had simply opened fire on groups of protesters without warning.

“We’ve got APC’s coming in behind the riot troops,” one of the resistances stabbed her finger at a screen. “It looks like an entire company of mechanized troops.”

“They might just be here to reinforce the riot troops, let’s not get hasty people,” the leader of this resistance group said as he stared intently at the screens over his people’s shoulders.

Evan sauntered up, “what’s going on?”

“We’ve got a mechanized infantry company approaching the rear of the riot line. I’m hoping that their just here to bolster the riot troops.”

“It doesn’t look like it,” Evan said as the first APC reached where the riot troop’s trucks were parked and dropped its ramp. Soldiers poured out of the vehicle’s interior, but they weren’t wearing riot gear and carrying batons. Instead they were wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles. As more of them got out of their tracks they started to form up in a line behind the troops in riot gear.

“You and your men had best get to your mobile suits, this looks like it’s about to get ugly.”

Evan turned and started to run to where the four Zakus were knelt. He gave a sharp whistle in the direction of where the other three pilots stood talking to a few of the female resistance fighters. The sharp noise made their heads snap up and in the direction of their commanding officer, “mount up! It looks like the Feds are about to pull some nasty ZOINKS and we’re going to have to step in to save those protesters.”

Evan had, by this point reached his Zaku and had hopped into the hand that had lowered him to the floor when he had arrived. He pressed a recessed button on the thumb and the hand automatically raised him back to his open cockpit hatch, which he scrambled through. Flopping into the padded pilot’s chair he flipped the master power switch from standby to full military power, bringing the Minovsky fusion reactor up to its full 951 kW output. He opened the platoon radio net, setting the radio’s broadcast power to the lowest setting in the hopes that the steel of the warehouse would keep his transmission from escaping out into the colony and, possibly, to a Federation electronic intelligence unit. “Boars check in.”

“Boar 3 is ready to rumble. Let’s go whoop some Feddie ass,” was the excited reply from Sergeant Derik Brooks.

“Boar 4 is set,” Corporal Jenifer Gomez just sounded nervous.

“Boar Lead is set. We’re waiting for the go order from the resistance leadership, but I expect it momentarily. When it is given we are going to be moving, with all haste, to get between the colonists and the Federal troops who seem to have orders to open fire to break up this protest. The objective here is not to engage the Federal troop, but just to protect the civilians. You will not fire, unless fired upon by a weapon that can actually do damage to your suit and paint scratches don’t count.”

He could hear Brooks mutter something, but before he could reprimand the Sergeant Tanaka fell on him like a ton of bricks, “We will have none of that Sergeant. You will follow orders and like it!”

“Aye Master Sergeant,” mumbled a reply.

“I couldn’t hear you” boomed the former Drill Sergeant.

“Aye Master Sergeant! I will not engage unless fired upon by a heavy weapon capable of doing major damage to my suit.”

“That’s more like it. Sorry for the interruption sir.”

Evan continued, “Master Sergeant, you and Sergeant Brooks will be acting as the shield force while Corporal Gomez and I will work to intimidate the Federal troops into dispersing.” He thought about the upcoming mission, “When you’re coming in to land be sure to fire your main engines well above the ground so you don’t fry anyone on the ground.” He got the standard chorus of confirmations from his platoon and nodded to himself, “OK, be ready.”

He pulled up a pop up window that showed the resistance fighters watching the screen and he locked his eyes on the leader, the one that would give the ‘Go’ order. A few moments later the man turned around and pumped his fist up and down, the order was given. Evan turned on his Zaku’s external speakers, “Everyone clear out of here, were going straight through the roof.” All the resistance fighters scattered heading for the buildings exits at dead sprints. A moment later the warehouse was empty except for the four mobile suits, “All right, here we go boys and girls.”

He crouched his suit down and then jumped it upwards, firing the main thrusters at the same time. With a screech the thin metal roof of the warehouse gave way to the 73.3 metric tons of robot and the rocketed into the sky of the colony in the first jump of three that would take him to the scene of the protest. He popped up a mini window to check on the rest of his platoon, seeing they were in good order, with Gomez tucked in behind and to his right, Tanaka and Brooks in tight formation to his left rear.

He had reached the apex of his first jump and looked down to make sure he saw the park that he had tagged as their first landing zone. There it was, and it was empty as had been predicted and he adjusted his course to land in a large open area, flared his main engines and his Zaku crashed back to the ground. The suit automatically bent its knees, ending up in almost a crouching position before jumping again. The other suits copied his maneuver and he began searching for his second landing area.

This one he had to worry about as it was a busy intersection. He crashed down while both directions were stopped and, for a split second, caught the stunned face of a woman behind the wheel of a car before he blasted back into the air.

That was the last landing before the protest “is everyone ready?” The proper responses came from all his pilots and he turned his attention back to his final landing zone, which had just come into view. He could see the mass of protestors and the line of Federal troops and vehicles. His suit’s computer projected his landing zone on the screen; he didn’t like it and adjusted his course slightly and checked the landing zones of the other three. They were to his liking and as his suit reached the apex of this third jump he checked and made sure that his suit’s MMP-78 120mm machine gun was loaded and charged with a high explosive round, he hoped he wouldn’t have to use the massively powerful weapon.

He zoomed in on the protest and saw that the rifle armed troops had made their way through the troops in riot gear and had formed up a solid line, facing the now fleeing protestors. “EVERYONE FULL POWER! Get down there NOW!” He floored the thruster peddles and his suits thrusters were pushed to 103% of their rated output, rocketing the Zaku II towards the ground. He flipped his suit so that it was feet down and fired his thrusters again to cancel out enough of his momentum that…

With a huge metallic CRASH his Zaku landed with such force that it had to go down to one knee and drop the hand that wasn’t carrying the 120mm to absorb the energy of his accelerated descent. Windows, for close to block around, exploded from the shockwave of the Zaku’s landing. He had landed right where he had planned to, right behind the Federation troops, who were all suddenly, not paying any attention to the fleeing protestors. Some of the Federal troops panic fired their weapons, some of which were still pointed at the protestors, but at that moment Tanaka and Brooks crashed to the ground, their mobile suits absorbing the rounds, protecting the protestors who had suddenly stopped fleeing and begun to cheer.

He brought his Zaku up to its full height and focused the main camera on the Federal troops. He locked the targeting sensor onto one of the APCs; making his Zaku’s light pink mono-eye flash, an angry, aggressive red. More of the rifle armed soldiers opened fire on his mobile suit. Evan flicked the switch for his external speakers, “sucks doesn’t it, being picked on by someone more powerful than you?” He did a thermal scan of the APC he had locked on to and, finding it was empty, crushed it like a soda can under his Zaku’s foot.

The soldiers broke and ran, leaving their trucks and armored vehicles behind as they sprinted in every direction in an almost animalistic panic. He was so amazed at how effective their display of force had been that he almost missed the flash of an anti-tank missile being fired from a rooftop and the chirp of his suit’s threat warning system.

“Move Corporal,” he shoved Gomez’s Zaku to the side and shifted his shoulder shield to take the brunt of the impact from the missile. The missile hit his shield at 715.8mph and detonated creating a plasma jet designed to burn through 35.4 inches of solid steel. Luckily the Zaku’s shoulder shield wasn’t just steel, but a sandwich of layers of steel and an ultra-hard ceramic and the plasma jet was only able to get though a couple of the layers before it had used up its energy and dispersed.

This all happened in the blink of an eye and as the first missile hit Evan’s shield another was launched from a building almost 3 kilometers away, at Corporal Gomez’s still staggering Zaku. There was no hope of her blocking it and it caught her suit in the right knee joint, tearing it apart and dropping the suit on its ass.

“Everyone form up tight around Gomez and cover her while she does damage assessment.” Evan and the other two Zakus in his platoon charged towards the downed suit, but before they got to it a third missile struck the damaged suit and took off the head. “Gomez you OK in there?”

“I’m good sir, can’t see ZOINKS though.”

“Third missile took off you head Corporal. We’ll cover you while you do an assessment.”

“Wilco sir,” she signed off the net.

“Tanaka, Brooks we are going to engage all the missile launch sites. You are to fire single shots only; there will be absolutely NO automatic fire. Is that understood?”

“Understood sir, came the short precise voice of Tanaka.

“Boar 3 is engaging targets,” Brooks sounded excited.

The three backed their suits around their disabled comrade, making the points of a triangle and began looking for targets. Evan was the first to see one, a missile team on the top of a four story building. They were rushing to load another missile onto their tripod mounted launcher as smoke curled from an empty missile tube that had been tossed away behind the launcher. The Federal troops must have gotten all the connections finished at that very moment because a tongue of fire leapt out the rear of the launcher as they fired it. The missile roared out, but before it got more than 100 meters it exploded, intercepted by a single 120mm round from Evan’s machine gun. He then shifted his aim and loosed a single round which hit the launcher, vaporizing it and turning the weapon’s crew into nothing but pink mist.

He heard similar barks from the guns of Tanaka and Brooks firing and the explosions of their shells hitting their targets, but more missiles kept coming. Most were intercepted or taken on the shoulder shield, but two more got through, one taking off Gomez’s Zaku’s right arm at the elbow and another crashed into her backpack.

This had been a set up from the very beginning. The Federation had let this information leak so that they could ambush any Zeon force that came to help. Evan made a snap decision and hoped it was the right one. “Corporal fry your computers and set the reactor’s anti-tamper device, we are going to abandon this unit.”

“Is that wise sir?”

“I don’t see much of an option Master Sergeant. If we try and take it with us, it’ll leave us too open. Cover me while I recover Gomez.” He knelt his Zaku down and stretched out its free hand to where Gomez had just popped her hatch open. She scrambled out of the hatch, turned dropped something in, and hopped into the outstretched hand of Evan’s Zaku. Three seconds later there was a crack, flash and puff of smoke as the grenade she had dropped into the cockpit detonated. Evan popped his hatch and Gomez scrambled in, wedging herself awkwardly behind his seat.

“All right kiddies, we’re out of here,” he turned his Zaku and pressed the thruster peddles to the floor for the second time in five minutes. This pushed his Zaku into the center of the colony cylinder where, in the zero gee, Evan paused to drop a message pod that would play a holographic message from Zeon Deikun to the people of the colony and the Federation troops that were occupying it, having done so he turned and lead his platoon out of the colony and back to the Trondheim.

“That was far too easy sir. The Federation only offered token resistance to the independence of the Sides. They must be plotting.”

Zeon Deikun shook his head, “of course they’re plotting. They’re always plotting and I fear now, that we have almost pushed them out of space; they will work harder than ever to strike back at us in ever more barbaric ways. I fear that now they will bide their time until they can strike with a force which they believe will be capable of subjugating us.”

“You think that they are going to attack us sir?”

“I do not ‘think’ I know they will it is only a matter of time. The Zaku that was lost on Shangri-La was never recovered and I can guarantee that it’s in some lab in Jaburo right now, being taken apart and analyzed.” Zeon Deikun didn’t mention the part of the report that talked about how Corporal Jessica Gomez had booby trapped the reactor, as you could never know who was listening in.

An aid rushed up to the group and, after a check by security personnel, came up to Zeon Deikun and handed him a short note. He read it quickly and he believed that the note should have made him happy, but it instead simply filled him with dread. Sides 1, 4 and 5, had just voted to join the Republic and he was now the leader of the largest nation state in the history of the Earth Sphere, with somewhere on the sunny side of 9 billion men, women and children looking to him for leadership.

The doctor looked over the reactor that had just been delivered to him, with barely contained glee. The engineers had stripped everything of use off of the Zaku, but this… this was his mystery to solve. He had very little to go on too, Dr. Ray had left several years before and he had taken or destroyed most of the data that had become available and the pilot of the suit had fried the suit’s computers and detonated a grenade in the cockpit for good measure.

None of that mattered now, he had a Minovsky reactor and he was going to take it apart to figure out how it worked so that the Federation could punish the Spacenoids for the arrogance that they had shown by defying the Earth Federation, the rightful government of the Earth Sphere.

A technician came up, “sir we’ve got the reactor mounted in a cradle and we can start the disassembly anytime you’d like.”

“No time like the present. Crack the seal and let’s get to it,” he turned and started to leave the observation room that over looked the work bay. At the same moment the technician gave the signal that the work crew should crack the reactor’s mounting shell so that they could get at the device itself. The work crew did so and one came forward with an air wrench and started to loosen the first of the bolts that held the top and the bottom of the shell together.

That one bolt being removed caused a change in the pressure inside the shell. This was sensed by a computer, no bigger than a wrist watch, and it brought the reactor from its dormant, standby mode, to full output in a matter of seconds.

The doctor had just reached the door of the observation room, “sir the reactor has just gone active and has reached its maximum output. All the doctor had a chance to do was whip his head around before a small shaped explosive charge inside the mounting shell detonated, breaching the reactor’s containment vessel and releasing all of its energy at once. It wasn’t a true nuclear detonation, but it was still powerful. It vaporized the building that housed the reactor test facility; the shockwave flattened the rest of the buildings in the RX complex and caused a partial collapse of the cavern. The Federation’s mobile suit project had just suffered its second major setback.

U.C. 0076, November 3
Jaburo, South America
Joint Conference Room

“So what were the total damages?” the Prime Minister of the Earth Federation looked like he had aged 5 years I the last three days.

“Well sir the RX complex is a total write off. What the reactor self-destruction didn’t destroy outright was crushed in the collapse of buildings or the partial collapse of the chamber.”

The Prime Minister placed his head in his hands, “how long is this going to set us back?”

Another man leaned forward, “Mr. Prime Minister, I’m Captain Jamitov Hyman from Operations.” The politician waved his hand in a motion that said he wanted Jamitov to continue, “We are not entirely out of luck sir. All of the data that we have collected from the Zaku was stored in several different data banks around Jaburo, so we aren’t totally out of luck. I estimate that it will be on the order of two years to develop our own suits and in that time we will be able to build our fleet to the point where we can simply overwhelm the forces of Side 3 and bring the other Sides back under our control as they rightfully should be.”

“What are the risks of this plan Captain?” The Prime Minister had perked up at hearing that there might be a way to resolve this issue before the next election in 0082.

“Well sir it will be an open conflict, but with proper information control we will be able to spin our public’s opinion in our favor and we will be able to do what needs to be done to set things right within the Earth Sphere.”

Ten minutes later the decision had been made. The Earth Federation would prepare to fight a war of conquest, to take back the colonies and their pride that the Republic of Zeon had so efficiently and quickly stripped them of.

U.C. 0076, December 13
Zum City, Side 3
Lower House of the Zeonic Parliament

The votes were in and it had been unanimous. Zeon Zum Deikun had been re-elected as the leader of the Republic for another eight years. He stood at the podium, looking out at the men and women of both houses of the Republic’s parliament and out to every man, woman and child in the Republic through the lenses of dozens of TV cameras. “My fellow citizens of the Republic, I am honored that you have chosen to trust me to lead for another term and I shall do my utmost to make these years peaceful and prosperous ones. I will say this, I see dark times ahead for our nation and we must work together to get through them.”

This sent a ripple around the room as the assembled politician’s soaked up that little tidbit of information. He was sure that they had all heard the rumors in one form or another, but to hear it from him must have made it all the worse. “We are a people who have made our lives in the harsh and unforgiving environment of space, some by choice, but most not. Now that we have established ourselves and can sustain ourselves they, who rule from Earth, want what we have.”

He looked around, the faces were now stricken. He had basically said that a war with the Earth Federation was a forgone conclusion, now he had to give them hope. “I shall work without rest to come to an acceptable agreement with the Earth Federation, but I will not sit idly by and allow my people to be harmed. We ask for those willing, to step forward and prepare to defend their homes if need be.” Little did Zeon Deikun know that his hopes for peace were already gone.

U.C. 0076, December 25
Zum City, Side 3
Prime Minister’s Residence

There were very few things that could make Zeon Deikun truly angry. Sure he got aggravated, annoyed sometimes, but rarely, very rarely did he actually get angry. The anger showed on his face and the aid that brought him the note quake a little. “Um sir Admiral Karn needs to see you for a moment, he’s waiting in your office.”

Zeon Deikun let his eyes drift across the room where his family and the Rays were sitting around, opening presents, laughing, enjoying their time together and he was to be dragged away by work. It was the first time he had seen his children since they had gone to the Institute at Grenada and he didn’t want it wasted.

Suppressing his anger, it wasn’t the aid’s fault after all, he rose “lead on.” He turned to his wife, “I’ll be back soon, Maharaja just needs to tell me something real quick.”

“Please hurry back, they may not act like it because they are teenagers, but the children are happy to see you.” Casval was currently teasing Artesia and Amuro was attempting to intervene on her behalf, “I’ll be back as quickly as possible dear.” He gave her a quick kiss and left the room, following the aid to his office.

He passed through the empty secretarial office and into his daily prison. There he was surprised to find Maharaja Karn, but in regular clothes, rather than the uniform that he had always seen his friend in over the last several years. “I don’t want to sound rude, but what the hell is so urgent that what little time I get with my family is interrupted?”

“I said the same words about 45 minutes ago at my own home, Haman almost cried when I said that I had to go to work.”

“Well tell me what you need to and get back to your family.”

Karn nodded, “we have just received a report from one of our agents in Jaburo. The Zaku was destroyed by its SDM, but they managed to get a lot of engineering data about it before they started with the reactor. It seems that they will have mobile suits within two years and they have greatly accelerated their ship building projects, a new class is in the works and modifications seem to be underway on the existing ones so that they may carry suits more efficiently.

“It sounds like what we feared is going to come to pass,” Zeon Deikun said, sitting on the edge of his desk because he no longer had the energy to stand.

“They are planning to take the colonies back by force sir. The plan seems to have been devised by a Captain Jamitov Hyman in their operations department and that’s the worst news of all.”

“Why’s that?” he didn’t think it could get worse.

“Because, sir, he is the one that ordered the massacres in Sides 1, 4 and 5 in order to suppress the popular uprisings. He will do absolutely anything to achieve his goals and advance his personal standing, including, I fear, nuking or gassing colonies to get others to submit.”

Tem Ray sighed; he really wished that he was still at the Prime Minister’s residence, enjoying the festive atmosphere, superb food and most of all spending time with his son, whom he hadn’t seen in months. It, however, was not to be. Two days after he had seen his friend hurry out of the two families shared Christmas celebration, he was in a conference room at Zeonic’s Headquarters with a bunch of his fellow mobile suit engineers and a contingent of military officers from the Republic’s Army and Marine Corps.

A Colonel in Army livery stood, “I am sorry to interrupt all of your vacations, but some information has reached us that is of great concern. While intervening in Side 1 a Zaku II was disabled and captured.” All the scientists gasped at the idea of the Federation getting their hands on their work. The officer patted the air with his hands, “don’t worry the pilot fried the computer and dropped a frag in the cockpit for good measure.”

“But the reactor, it’s the most important part and they got it intact!” the scientist in charge of that project moaned.

“True enough sir, but according to our source the anti-tamper device that you designed worked perfectly and they only could get extremely low quality images through the shell before they set off the device.” A sigh of relief passed around the non-military men and women in the room before the Colonel could continue. “However they will have mobile suits in the next two years and it seems that they are intent upon using them.”

This time there was silence, broken only by the beep of someone’s pad announcing that it was down to 15% power. “This brings us to why we are gathered here. We have to decide where to take our mobile suit development program.” He looked at Tem, “Dr. Ray you have been pushing for the development of a mobile suit equipped with miniaturized beam weaponry.”

“I have,” Tem replied. “It’s far from impossible and with the data that we have from Dr. Minovsky I should have a working prototype in about two years, sorry I’m not as smart as he was.”

“We want you to keep working on that of course, but we need options that can be executed more quickly. We have to assume that their suit will be comparable to our current Zaku-IIc, so we’ll need something better that can be deployed in a hurry. The F-Model that we’ve been working on isn’t going to be enough of an improvement.”

A member of the advanced Zaku project leaned forward, “our Zaku-II Fz has about 50% new parts, is about twice as fast as current models and is armored with a more durable titanium ceramic composite armor, making it far more survivable. It will also be equipped with new armaments; like the new MMP-80, 90mm machine guns and a pair of 30mm gatling cannons in the head for close in defense, anti-vehicle and anti-personnel work.”

“Oh that’s the one that looks like it’s wearing a stahlhelm?” the scientist nodded in response to the question and Tem turned to look at the Army Colonel, The Fz is a good option for what you need, but I would like to request that some resources be given to my R-2 project. It will be ready in less than a year and it will be equipped with a more powerful reactor that will be able to support a pair of beam sabers for close range combat.”

“Why can’t we just do that for all of them?” the Colonel asked.

“The reactors are currently in development and won’t be ready for the rollout of the Fz’s. These R-2 models will have superior speed, maneuverability and firepower with the sabers, but they will be hard machines to use and should only be given to the most experienced of pilots. They will also provide a good test bed as we get closer to beam equipped suits.” Tem saw the Colonel and the other military men nodding. It seemed as if a decision had been made.

U.C. 0077, April 4
Granada
Dark Side of the Moon

Artesia let out a bit of a sniffle, despite her obvious efforts to hide it from her brother. “Hey you,” he gave her a one armed squeeze, “don’t worry about it. It’s not like I’m going away forever, I’m just going back to Side 3.”

“But it’s the first time we’ll have ever been so far apart.”

“It’s not like you’re going to be alone,” he gabbed Amuro and dragged the younger boy towards him, turning him to face Artesia at the same time, “you’ll have Amuro here to keep you company.” He could feel the heat as his friend went beet red and hung his head in a vain attempt to hide the fact. Casval turned his friend 180 degrees again, gave him another slight shove and then reached out and grabbed their shoulders. With a shove he pushed them together and was gratified to see his sister go as red as his best friend. ‘Yep’, he thought to himself, ‘those two are going to end up together, even if they don’t realize it yet.’ He had known it as soon as they had started doing sensory exercises; the two had just clicked, while he had had to work at it. It was obvious to him that their abilities far outstretched his own, so he was heading to the RZM Academy where he could improve his abilities by other means and in other areas. He might not be on the same level Newtype abilities wise, but he was going to be damn sure that he had strength in other areas.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a man get aboard the shuttle next to his and thought he looked familiar. He decided it wasn’t important and turned back to annoying his sister and friend. Little did he know that he had just seen Professor Chlust Moses, a researcher that had just been fired from the Institute and had decided to take a suitcase of data disk copies with him when he left.

The red mono-eye flared to life for the first time and the first production Zaku IIFz stepped out of its construction frame, Colonel Dozel Zabi at the controls. He did his customary boxing moves and was amazed at how much faster it was than the C model that had served him so well in the past. There was a beep indicating an incoming transmission and Dozel used the hat switch on his left joystick to open the incoming channel.

“What do you think Colonel?”

“This suit is totally above anything I’ve piloted before. Where are the weapons?”

“Over on the wall across from you Colonel and we have a surprise for you. The factory designed it for you special.”

Dozel looked over seeing the MMP-80, with under slung grenade launcher and a gleaming polished metal blade. It was a super high quality katana shaped heat sword. He took it off the wall and handled it as gently as he possibly could. “The people of Side 6 do me a great honor and I humbly accept this gift. He flicked a switch and the suit automatically stowed the gleaming sword on its hard point on the side of the Zaku’s backpack. After equipping the machine gun and grenades Dozel marched the suit out of the factory and blasted off into the center of the colony. From there he went through the series of airlocks that lead him back to space where his Musai was waiting for him.

U.C. 0077, October 27
Lagrange 1
Space Fortress Babylon

The massive asteroid had been changed from a lifeless hunk of rock and metal, into a bastion of strength and power. It had been built to guard Side 5 and was the most vulnerable outpost of the Republic, after Solomon, which guarded Sides 2 and 6. A similar fortress, named Camelot, had been built at Lagrange 5 to guard Sides 1 and 4. Each of these fortresses’ was armed to the teeth and had full fleets stationed at them on top of the garrison forces. They were the hard shell of the Republic. They would have to hold against Federation assaults until one of the Mobile fleets could relieve them.

U.C. 0078, January 19
Lagrange 3
Asteroid Base Luna II

It had begun; the might of the Earth Federation was coming up to space. The Commandant of Luna II, Wolfgang Watkein, watched another of the redesigned Salamis class ships pass into one of the bases many internal harbors. It didn’t have any yet but when they were ready this light cruiser would carry four mobile suits to battle and punish the arrogant Spacenoids. It would take time, but some day these forces would leave on a mission of conquest, to show the people of space, once and for all, who ruled the Earth Sphere.

U.C. 0078, April 26
Zum City, Side 3
Republic of Zeon Military Academy

There was much fanfare as the graduating class stood at attention, listening to many senior officers drone on about duty and mission, biting his own tongue was the only thing keeping Casval awake at this point. Finally the last one came up to the podium, his presence made Casval perk up and pay attention. It was Lieutenant Commander Ramba Ral, the man who had been his instructor in mobile suit combat tactics.

Lt. Commander Ral began, “We have tried to impart our knowledge to you, tried to instruct you in things that you can’t possibly understand until you experience them for yourself and we hope that you have listened and will heed our words. You now go forth as officers, men and women that will lead the people that shield our nation from harm and I will only say this, I damn well hope that you are worthy of them.”

With that the ceremony was closed and the cadets, now officers, tossed their hats in the air. Tradition stated that you picked up the first cover you found on the ground after that you were free to see family and start a 96 hour pass. The first hat that Casval found was thankfully close to his size, this kept him from looking as ridiculous as Garma Zabi, who had had the bad luck of picking up a female officer’s cover.

“Damn it,” he grumbled, “now I look like a total dweeb.”

“Sorry Garma, but you didn’t need the hat for that,” Casval jibed back; “you’ll always look like a dweeb no matter what.”

That set Garma grumbling under his breath and Casval caught “… get stuck on an old clunker of a Musai and he gets to command the first of a new class of…”

“Hey, stop right there Garma. I earned that command because I was the top of my class and I have experience with the type of mission that the ship will be tasked with.”

“And what might that be?”

“You know I can’t tell you that Garma, but we’ll both be stationed at Babylon so I’m sure that you’ll find out soon enough.”

Garma shrugged, “meh, it doesn’t really bother me that much. We both got through, we’ll be working together, and that’s good enough for me.”

“Good to hear Garma. Now if you don’t mind I’ve got to get to the spaceport and hop a shuttle to Granada to see my sis and take command of my ship.”

Eighteen hours later he stood on the wide open bridge of the Zanzibar class mobile cruiser Svalinn, the first of a new class of cruiser, heavily armed, highly mobile and able to carry two teams of three mobile suits apiece. He walked to the rear of the bridge and was about to enter the lift to go down to the mobile suit deck, when he saw the ship’s highly polished brass plaque.

Svalinn is his name,
he stands a shield before the sun,
the shining deity.
I know that the hills and
the sea would burn,
if it were to fall from its place. (3)

This ship and its crew were to be the shield of the Republic, standing between it and certain annihilation. They were to keep the burning heat away and Casval had no idea how literal that statement would end up being.

U.C. 0078, August 4
Jaburo, South America
Mobile Suit Plant #1

Jamitov walked around the brand new machine. It was beyond what he had expected and it had taken less than the two years that he had promised. The machine had none of the bulkiness that Side 3’s suits, instead looking sleek, with narrow legs, no external energy pipes, an angular torso and a large imposing shield. The only thing that he was not pleased about was the armament. The 90mm machine gun and the 90mm rifle were excellent weapons, but they weren’t the beam weapons that he had been hoping for. Similarly the heat saber on the backpack’s right side wasn’t the beam saber that he had been hoping for either.

“Damn that Tem Ray,” he grumbled under his breath. With that man and all the data that they had stolen he would have had a much more powerful suit, but this would just have to do. The Earth Federation would go to war with the GMS-78 General Mobile Suit, but he was sure that they would be able to make improvements quickly. A thought occurred to him, he would also slow the Republic’s mobile suit projects and he took out his phone and called the head of Military Intelligence to put his plan into motion.

U.C. 0078, August 21
Zum City, Side 3
Prime Minister’s Residence

“No, no, no! I already have my son in the military I will not allow my daughter to risk her life.”

“Then why did you even let me go to the Flanagan Institute, why did you let me take mobile suit training, why did you let me discover this ability that I can use to help keep people safe?!” Artesia was so mad at her father that she had lost her regular calm, collected, demeanor. She pointed at Amuro over her shoulder, “His parents are letting him.”

Her father shifted his glare from her to Amuro, who had been doing his best to shrink into the corner of a room that didn’t have any. “Is that true?”

“Yes sir. I spoke with them this morning and they said it was my decision, they weren’t particularly happy with it, but they left it up to me. I want to help and I know that I can; I think it would be irresponsible not to.”

Artesia could see that wasn’t the response that her father had been expecting, but for her that was a good sign. He flopped back into his desk chair, looking defeated. “Artesia I know that you are almost an adult and I want to treat you like one, but you must realize that to me you’ll always be my little girl and I’ll always want to make sure that you’re safe.”

“I know that dad, but I need to start making my own choices…”

Her father cut her off, “I’ll let you go on one condition.”

“What’s that dad?”

“I’m going to make sure that you and Amuro are assigned to you brother’s ship.”

“I don’t need Cas looking over my shoulder any more than I need you…”

“It’s that, or nothing at all Artesia. You are still under age and need my approval. This is the only way that you’ll get it”

Artesia felt a hand on her shoulder, “Artesia,” it was Amuro, “it’s not that bad a deal.”

“OK,” she relented. It wouldn’t be so bad working with her brother and Amuro would be there, the thought made her smile.

U.C. 0078, September 11
Lagrange 1
In the Area of Space Fortress Babylon

It had been a short trip in the Papua class transport, but now they were in easy range of the massive asteroid fortress Babylon. Amuro snuggled down into the padded seat of his brand new MS-06R-2 Newtype use high mobility Zaku II, as he waited for the call from the bridge that he was clear to launch. Beside his machine was an identical R-2 unit, except that it was painted in an orange and tan paint scheme, while his was almost all white, except for the upper torso which was black.

His radio crackled to life, “Petty Officer Ray, Petty Officer Deikun, you are cleared for launch in that sequence.”

Amuro toggled his push to talk button, “thanks for that and thanks for the lift here. This is Amuro Ray, launching!” The catapult accelerated him down its length, at the very end he sprang his suit out of the crouch he had put it in, just before the cat shot, and hit the thrusters.

“Artesia Deikun, launching” crackled in over his normal suit’s helmet mounted speakers and a moment later her suit pulled up next to his, its new 360mm Giant Bazooka over its shoulder, held down and pointed slightly to the suit’s right. Artesia had shown an instinctual knack for long range shooting while Amuro and Casval had excelled at the mid and short range.

“All right Artesia, let’s go!” he pressed his thruster peddles to the floor and shoved his control sticks forward, firing all of his suits main thrusters at the same time and pushing the Zaku to its full 1.32g acceleration. He threw the sticks to the left, putting the Zaku in a dizzying snap roll that he might have used to avoid incoming fire.

He felt a twinge and pushed the suit’s legs out in front of him and fired the six massive leg thrusters virtually killing his forward velocity. His threat detector screeched as his suit sensed targeting lasers and he fired his back pack thrusters to shoot him straight up relative to the course he had just been traveling.

“An excellent maneuver,” crackled a new voice as Amuro’s a highlight box appeared on his screen and then zoomed in as a secondary camera focused in on it, or tried to, because the incoming suit was so fast that it was past Amuro before the suit even got a chance to focus on it. All the camera was able to catch was a red, maroon streak. As Amuro whipped around, he flicked a switch and the Zaku’s left hand dropped back and grabbed one of the beam saber hilts mounted there. His suit almost had it all the way up when he got all the way around, only to find the un-ignited hilt of Casval’s beam saber pointed straight at his cockpit hatch.

Amuro raised his suit’s hands in mock surrender, “you got me.”

“I’ve had a lot more practice recently, but I’m sure you’ll get better, hey Arty why didn’t you help out?”

“Because I didn’t want to get in the middle of the never ending competition between the two of you… and don’t call me Arty.” She had caught up to Amuro and Casval, “I’ve been wanting to do some target practice and you’d make an excellent target,” the bazooka her Zaku carried turned ever so slightly towards her brother’s suit.

“Ok, ok, you win. Follow me you two, The Svalinn left port early on a patrol.” His Zaku blasted off in the direction that he had originally came from with Amuro and Artesia following right behind him.

U.C. 0078, September 28
Zum City, Side 3
Prime Minister’s Residence

The flash bulbs erupted as Zeon Deikun walked out onto the stage in the press room. “Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I am going to make this brief. I’m sure you’ve all heard the rumors of the Earth Federation’s military buildup at Lagrange 3; it is my sad duty tonight to confirm those rumors. Starting at some point early this year, the Earth Federation has been moving large numbers of warships to their base, Luna II. We have asked the intentions of these warships and received no response. I call upon the Earth Federation to send a delegation to the neutral city of Von Braun so that we may ease these tensions before they turn into something that I am sure neither of our two nations desires; Questions?”

The room exploded, with reporters jumping to their feet, practically climbing over one another to have themselves selected. He pointed at a young woman in the third row, “Yes Miss Davis?”

“Thank you Mr. Prime Minister. Is the RZM mobilizing to counter this possible threat?”

“At this time I don’t want to make things worse if there is a chance of making them better. The Forces at Solomon and 1st Fleet at Lagrange 4 have been put on higher states of alert, but no fleets from other sectors have been ordered to move; next question?”

The bedlam broke out again and this time he selected a known trouble maker from the Zum City Times, “go ahead Arthur.”

“Thank you,” Zeon Deikun noted that he hadn’t said ‘Mr. Prime Minister,’ “The people of the Republic want to know why you are taking such a conciliatory stance on this issue. You have to admit that they don’t seem…”

Zeon Deikun cut him off, “You would rather we simply resort to violence!? I do NOT find that to be an acceptable way to resolve our differences. I will only do that as a very last resort to protect the people who have trusted me to make the right decision.” He glared the man back into his seat and then looked at the other vultures in the room and found that he no longer wanted to speak to them. He turned and left the stage and not a word followed him.

It had been a nice night and Tem Ray was glad that he had taken the night off and taken his wife out for an extremely overdue night of dinner and dancing. Kamaria had enjoyed the whole night and Tem felt bad that he hadn’t taken her out sooner. He was sure that she was as worried about Amuro as he had been, but he had gotten so wrapped up in his work on the new mobile suit design that he hadn’t even considered how his wife was feeling.

He was so close. The day before he had made a precise calculation and found a theory of Dr. Minovsky’s had been correct and would be applicable to the miniaturization of beam weaponry for mobile suit use. The two reached their car got in and Tem inserted and turned the key. Three seconds later the car was nothing but a flaming ruin, with Tem and Kamaria Ray still inside.

The airlock door hissed open, with Amuro passing through it a fraction of a second later. “Amuro wait,” Artesia pleaded as she followed him through before the door slid shut again.

“No, those bastards killed my parents and I’m going to make them pay for it.” He had reached the cockpit hatch of his Zaku and was trying to punch in the unlock code when Artesia finally caught up to him.

“They already caught the agents that placed the bomb,” Amuro was still trying to punch the code in, but wasn’t having very much success. She reached out and, grabbing his shoulder, spun him around and slammed him against the cold metal of the Zaku’s chest. She delivered a powerful slap that snapped his head to the side. “There’s nothing you can do, they’re gone. The men responsible have been caught and will face the punishment that they deserve.”

“They aren’t really responsible for this,” he seemed calmer to her now, “it’s those people in Jaburo that dad used to work for.”

“I’m sure they’ll get their comeuppance Amuro, but this,” she tapped the armor “is not the answer.” She pulled him away from the metal and wrapped her arms around, him pulling him close and pushing off of the mobile suit, propelling them into vast open area of the hanger. She hugged him tighter and she felt him start to tremble as the tears finally came. He had been holding it in since he had heard about the murder of his parents a few days before, masking the sadness behind rage. Artesia had felt it and had wanted to help, but had been rebuffed at every turn, until now. Now she had finally broken through the wall he had put up and his emotions flowed into her.

U.C. 0078, October 12
Lagrange 2
Lonesome, Military Asteroid Prison

It had been the fastest trial in the history of the Republic, leading some T.V. pundits to say that it was simply a show trial. The fact was that the two men had been captured with explosive residue, matching that of the bomb used to kill the Ray’s, on them and in a vehicle that had been recorded near the restaurant. RZM Intelligence had also identified them as known Federation agents, though this information had only been released in the closed part of the trial to protect the sources and methods that were used for intelligence collection. Two men were marched into the room and strapped down to the two gurneys.

“Any last words?” the warden asked.

“You and all of you Spacenoids, will pay for your arrogance. Someday soon the Federation will squash you like the vermin you are.”

“Classy,” replied the warden. He nodded to the man at the controls, who pressed the button starting the lethal flow of drugs into the two condemned men.

Three minutes later they were both confirmed dead and on the other side of the one way glass Artesia gave Amuro a squeeze, “that’s the end of it.” She felt Amuro shake his head and she looked up at him.

“I’ve got a feeling that it hasn’t even begun yet,” he said, a grim expression set on his face.

U.C. 0078, October 13
Zum City, Side 3
Ray Home, Zeonic HQ Complex

The man couldn’t believe what he was reading. The hand written notes had just been discovered, as part of another sweep of the Ray home and he, as the doctor’s research assistant had been brought in to see if they were of value.

“So…” asked the naval officer in charge of the sweep “is it valuable? We did find it in a secret compartment in the leg of a desk.”

“Valuable isn’t the word I would use, I wouldn’t even use one word, ‘fucking gold mine’ is the phrase I’d use.”

“So what is it?” the officer scratched his head as he looked at one of pages of calculations.

“Dr. Ray finished one of professor Minovsky’s formulas and we should be able to use it to take one of those mega particle cannon’s on your Musai cruisers and shrink it to a size where a mobile suit could wield it, This means that the Gelgoog project can get back on track.” None too soon too, he thought, looking at the way things were going with the Federation.

U.C. 0078, November 2
Grenada, Dark Side of the Moon
RZM Military Dock

With a final flare of the Svalinn’s descent engines, the cruiser came to rest in a refitting bay. After twenty minutes the large chamber was re-pressurized and the bridge hatch of the gray painted warship cracked open and swung in. Casval stuck his head out and looked for a greeting party and, upon spotting one approaching his ship; he jumped from the hatch taking advantage of the low gravity of the moon to make it to the deck of the bay before the party reached him.

“Welcome Lieutenant,” Kycilia Zabi returned the salute, “I must say that it’s wonderful to see you again.”

“It’s good to see you too and congrats on picking up Major by the way.”

Kycilia waved it away, “apparently I’m good at my job and command decided to reward me.” She looked up at the cruiser, where other crew members were waiting for the mobile stairs to be in place before making their descent, “how’s the Svalinn handling?”

“Oh it’s excellent, though there are a few things I’ve been wondering about.”

“The large empty compartment, forward of main engineering?” she asked with a smile crossing her face.

“Yes that’s one, also the poorly armored sections on each side of the mobile suit hanger.”

“You found the two major items on your ships overhaul list.” She pointed towards the area where the empty compartment was, “that is going to be filled by a Minovsky Craft System. This will allow your ship to operate in gravity environments with relative ease.” She then pointed at the side of the hanger deck, where dock workers were already setting up scaffolding, those areas are going to be replaced with heavy armored doors and two retractable launch catapults are going to be installed.”

“Does this mean that command is considering the possibility of combat on Earth?”

“If it comes to war with the Federation it is something that must be considered, despite how distasteful the thought might be.”

U.C.0078, November 29
Zum City, Side 3
Prime Minister’s Residence

Zeon Deikun sighed, Maharaja Karn was his friend, but he really didn’t like seeing him in his official capacity lately. “So what do you have for me today Admiral?”

“As I told you the other day, we have been looking for corporations to provide us with designs of mobile suits for combat on Earth’s surface. We have accepted contracts with Zimmad for their high speed land combat suit, the Dom, and with MIP for their amphibious Z’Gok.” He handed a pair of thick folders across the desk, “I have authorized limited production runs for both units and they will not be revealed to the public.”

“Do we really need these? Won’t the Zaku’s function well enough in a gravity environment?”

“They will sir, but these two suits expand the abilities of our forces and we need our forces to be flexible to deal with the numerical superiority of the Federation if it comes to a test of arms.”

Zeon Deikun leafed through the folders; both of the suits were far removed from Zakus that had performed so well up to this point and he hoped that the call he would make tomorrow would prevent any of them from ever having to be used.

U.C. 0078, Nov 30
Zum City, Side 3
Prime Minister’s Residence

He sat, head in hands, staring at the phone. His secretary had informed him that she had attempted to call the Prime Minister of the Earth Federation, but all she had gotten was the secretarial pool and they had said that he wasn’t in the office. This was despite a report to the contrary, from a field spook, which said that the man had been in the office or at least the building all day. “So…” he sighed, “there is no way of stopping it now.” He reached for the phone and told his secretary to call the parliament and tell them that he wanted to address both houses as soon as possible.

U.C. 0078, December 1
Zum City, Side 3
Parliament Building, Chambers of the Lower House

“I stand before you today, about to ask you something that a leader should never have to ask. Despite every effort on my part, the part of our foreign affairs branch and on the part of some of you, it would appear that the Earth Federation is set on the course for war with our Republic. I am therefore requesting that the Parliament authorize a full mobilization of the military, to include the reserves, National Guard, and civil defense reserve fleet.”

Something happened then, that Zeon Deikun hadn’t been expecting. The floor erupted in applause. He couldn’t understand it, he had just told them that he had failed to prevent a war and they were clapping. He finished his speech and left the podium to another thundering round of applause. He waited in an anteroom while the two houses of parliament made a quick vote, one unanimously for the proposed mobilization.

U.C. 0078, December 2
New Kiel, Side 3
Republic of Zeon Fleet Home Port

Dozens of ships hung in space outside the massive cylinder, as even more sortied from both spaceports. Most were the different versions of the Musai including some early versions, the most common Mk. II and a smattering of the new high speed versions which sacrificed firepower, having only two mega-particle turrets, for speed. There were also a few of the huge Gwazine class battleships and about two dozen of the high speed Zanzibar class cruisers. All of these ships made up the 1st and 2nd combined fleets, who’s orders were simple; to proceed to Solomon at best possible speed and once there to be chopped to the command Rear Admiral Dozel Zabi. They were being sent there to act as a deterrent to the massive Federation build-up at their base of Luna II and the single colony that made up the incomplete Side 7 colony cluster.

At the same time, a smaller group of about three dozen Mk. II Musais and Interceptor Musais, making up the 12th fleet, under the command of Commodore Jimba Ral were already well on their way to their new home, the asteroid fortress Babylon guarding Side 5. Upon reaching the asteroid another ship was to be added to the fleet’s compliment, the mobile cruiser Svalinn.

U.C. 0078, December 14
Zum City, Side 3
Zeonic Company Headquarters

“He figured it out…” whispered Tem Ray’s former research assistant. The mega particles had been stored in their high energy state in a relatively small capacitor. This would allow mobile suits, which had enough reactor energy to spare, to carry beam weapons that weren’t hard wired into the suit’s power core.

“Does this mean the Gelgoog project can get back on track?” asked the military liaison officer standing next to him.

“Yes” he bobbed his head up and down in confirmation, not taking his eyes off the experiment before him. “We’ve had the information that Dr. Ray for a while but we needed to test his solution to see if it lined up with the math he had done. With this issue sorted we should have some prototype suits in a couple of months and full production in six to eight.”

“Will we be able to equip the Zaku II’s with beam weapons?” the officer asked with unmistakable hope in his voice.

“Unfortunately not yet; we can’t make a reactor small enough, but with enough power output, to fit inside a Zaku. We should be able to equip them with beam sabers, using the data we got from the R-2 project, but the power drain of a rifle would be too detrimental to the suit’s other functions.”

The military man shrugged, “either way this is going to be a nasty surprise for the Feds once we get it into the field.”

Amuro was lying on his back, the metal deck plating cool through the cloth of his uniform top, staring up at the star filled reaches of space and had absolutely nothing to say to the girl lying next to him. He hadn’t actually believed that she would say yes when he asked her out for Christmas and therefore he hadn’t come up with any sort of plan when she HAD said yes. He turned his head to his left and drank in the sight of her platinum blond hair reflecting the light of the stars and wished his Newtype abilities were better developed so, he could read her mind and know what to say to make him sound cool. He was still trying when she turned her face towards him.

“Calm down Amuro. You are about as nervous as a gazelle at the annual lion convention.”

He smiled and couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of the joke and the fact that she had said it with such a straight face made it all the funnier. “Sorry,” he stammered while trying to wipe tears out of his eyes, “but this can’t be all that much fun. In all honesty I didn’t think you’d say yes when I asked you out.”

“I happen to like looking at the stars and what ever made you think I wouldn’t say yes?”

“Well… uh…” he trailed off, too embarrassed to say what he was feeling and turning his head back towards the stars.

“I know you like me Amuro.” This whipped his face back towards Artesia. “You know I’m a Newtype too,” she winked at him, “I can sense these kinds of things.”

It had just went from the worst Christmas of his life, to the best, as Artesia snuggled up against him and they continued to stare out the observation blister at the stars.

U.C. 0078, December 31
Jaburo, South America
EFF Command Center

“Our forces are in place mister Prime Minister and we can begin the attack within 72 hours of your order.”

The politician nodded, “the order is given Admiral. It’s time we taught those arrogant Spacenoids a lesson.”

The flag officer nodded to a junior officer, who immediately hustled from the room and headed to the comm shack where he gave a five letter code group to be transmitted to all the units taking part in the attack. In 72 hours on January 3rd, U.C. 0079, at 0230 1st, 2nd and 3rd fleets would move against the two Sides closest to Luna II, while the 4th fleet would make a sneak attack from Jaburo at the fortress guarding Side 5 in an attempt to blow right past it so that they could attack the Zeon homeland and end the war in a single stroke.

Little did the Federation know that Zeon had cracked part of the EFSF code and this code group set all Zeonic forces on full alert.

U.C. 0079, January 3
Lagrange 1, Svalinn
Mobile Suit Deck

Amuro yawned, putting his hand up to his mouth in the normal fashion, not realizing right away that the face plate of his helmet was closed. He looked at the clock in the corner of his Zaku II’s monitor, “0228” he grumbled, “Why can’t they attack at a nice reasonable hour?”

“Because the Federation is full of ZOINKS,” answered Artesia over the hardline that connected their suits in the hanger, “and they want to deny you your beauty sleep”

“Sounds about right” he grumped. He was about to say something else about the Federation when the general alarm started squalling its annoying two tone alert noise. "General Quarters, General Quarters! All hands man your battle stations!”

“Now hear this, now hear this this is the Captain speaking,” Casval’s voice boomed out of the 1-MC. “A major Federation force has sortied from their Luna II base and Side 7. 1st and 2nd Fleets, along with the garrison forces of Solomon are moving to engage. This however is the least of our worries, as a force has also been detected launching from Jaburo and its projected course has it attacking Side 5 in the next 6-8 hours. This ship, along with the Interceptor Musais Tripoli and Graf Spee¬ will move ahead to disrupt the Federation Fleet’s formation to slow its advance to give the 12th Fleet and Babylon’s garrison forces a chance to deploy in a way to defend the Side.”

Amuro was pressed into the seat of his mobile suit, as the ship fired its engine’s. “So this is it? The war has begun.” He leaned forward and started a system diagnostic of his Zaku as he headed towards the first engagement of a war that would turn out to be more horrible than any that had come before.

Author’s Notes:
Wow… this turned out to be WAY longer than I had planned on it being. I originally just wanted to set up an altered timeline for my story, but as I worked it just kind of grew… it’s not so much a prologue anymore, more like a prequel now. Well I hope you enjoyed this and will continue to read as I add real chapters to this story. They won’t be this long, but there will be more action, drama, romance and surprises to come.

Thanks to my friend Tiberius216 for his work editing and the ideas he provided to help flesh out this prologue.

1: ZEF were the Zeon Elite Forces, a national guard like organization that was disbanded and rolled into the Principality’s military.

Thanks for waiting and sorry for taking SOOOOO long to get another chapter up. I hope to have more time for writing in the near future so as to get chapters out faster. As always please read and review. Tell me what you liked and what you didn’t; I am always open to constructive criticism. Many thanks to my Editor Tiberius216 for their work and putting up with my nagging to finish the edit, even though it took me FOREVER to give them the draft.

U.C. 0079, January 3
Bridge of the EFSS Volga
En Route to Lagrange One

The Admiral ran his gloved hand over the small control panel built into the arm of his command chair; it was so nice to have a new ship, he thought to himself. He had liked the Salamis and Magellan class ships he had commanded before attaining flag rank, but this Pegasus class ship was something else entirely. It had been built with mobile suit operations in mind, having two suit hangers, each with its own catapult to launch the GMs into action. This was a far from the days of lashing them to the outer hull; like the commanders of the older ships had to do.

He shook his head to clear it. His fleet had reached the point where he could open his sealed orders. He rotated the screen, which was attached to the right side of his command chair, up and locked it in front of him. He typed his user password in and the log in screen disappeared replaced by a loading screen for a few seconds while the ship’s main computer sent his personal settings and files to the terminal. The process finished and he tapped the icon for the orders, after the system first confirmed the ship’s position and he entered his command authorization password, the file opened and a single page document was displayed.

YOU ARE TO ATTACK BABYLON WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS TO AFFECT A RAPID BREAKTHROUGH TO SIDE 5 AND WORK PAST THE MOON TO MAKE A DIRECT ASSAULT ON THE HOME OF THE REBELLION AT THE COLONIES OF SIDE 3…

“Captain,” the voice of the Volga’s sensor officer tore the admiral from the screen.

“What is it?” the captain said, looking over his shoulder to look at the two operators at their posts on the top of the command tree.

The admiral looked over his own shoulder as the two officers, who were working furiously to confirm the data that had caught their attention. “Well…” he growled, “what is it?”

“We have a small group of ships approaching us. Looks… looks like two Musais and a larger vessel that we don’t have on file, looks to be at least a heavy cruiser…” the man’s voice drifted off.

“Any more information?” the captain asked.

“No sir, radar has been blanked. Looks like the Zeeks started broadcasting Minovsky particles.”

“Use their last known position and start searching using optical sensors,” ordered the Captain. He turned to the admiral in the seat next to him. “Will this group affect our orders sir?”

The older man thought for a moment, “no we shall continue on this vector. It’s only three ships if they don’t turn-tail and run of their own accord we will sweep them out of our way with ease. Communicate that to all ships via laser link Captain.”

“Aye sir,” the captain waved a hand to the communications officer, having over heard the order, and began typing it into the system that would encode it and transmit it from the Volga’s multidirectional signaling laser.

Enhanced Zanzibar Class Mobile Cruiser
ZSS Svalinn
Hanger Bay

She was shaking all over. Artesia had never really thought that she would have to fight, joining the military so she could stay close to her brother and Amuro, but actually going to war… her thoughts were interrupted by the blaring of the ship’s One-MC.

“Now hear this, now hear this, this is the captain speaking,” Casval’s voice boomed out from speakers built into the cockpit of Artesia’s Zaku. “We have begun broadcasting Minovsky particles and we will launch mobile suits starting in two minutes…” her brother’s voice trailed off and there was a moment of silence before he continued, “And may God smile upon us this day.”

The comms clicked off, leaving Artesia in an even worse state than she had been moments before. She could feel her resolve wavering, she didn’t want to fight, and she wasn’t made out to be a warrior. It was pure selfishness that had brought her to where she sat, in the cockpit of a High Mobility Type-2 Zaku II, about to go into battle. The sound of a heavy metallic foot fall made her look to the right, to see that Amuro had moved his Zaku next to hers.

He reached his machine’s hand out and grabbed one of her suit’s hands. With a crackle of static, inherent in the system, her suit received a “skin talk” signal from Amuro’s and a video window opened in the upper right of her central monitor. She could see the concern on his face. He had, without a doubt, felt her roiling emotions straight through the composite armor of both their Zakus.

“You’ll be alright Artey. I promise that I’ll keep you safe.” The smile that she loved so much cracked across his face, “those Feds won’t even be able to lay a finger on us, trust in your training.”

She knew what he was trying to do and she could even feel it working a little, the shaking was beginning to stop and she could feel her normal cool, collected self, winning its fight over her panic. “Thanks Amuro,” she took a deep calming breath, held it for a few moments and let it out, “that’s just what I needed.”

A flicker of movement on her screen caught her eye and she looked at it just in time to see the back of a blond head and black half cape disappear through a hatch out of the hanger bay. “So Casval had felt it too and had come down to check on me”, she felt their love and this swept away the last of her unease.

----------

Amuro could feel her anxiety ease and breathed out a silent sigh of relief. He knew she was strong, but he also knew that she hadn’t been preparing for what was about to happen the same way that he and Casval had been. She was far too kind for this, but it was too late for that kind of thinking now.

His radio crackled to life, “Ensign Ray, please prepare for launch from the port side catapult.”

“Roger,” he looked back at the screen, where Artesia was smiling tentatively back at him. “See you out there babe.”

“I’ll be out three seconds behind you Amuro; they’re launching me from the starboard cat just after you.”

Amuro took his Zaku’s hand out of her suit’s hand, breaking the “skin talk” connection, and moved it over to the port side of Svalinn’s hanger, ending up with his suit standing behind the catapult foot clamps. At a light wand signal from one of the ground crew, one foot at a time, he stepped his Zaku into the clamps, which closed around his suit’s feet, securing it for launch. Amuro ran a quick systems check, to make sure his suit was in proper working order, then keyed his comm. “This is Ensign Amuro Ray all systems green, I’m ready for launch.”

“Roger that Ensign Ray,” came the voice of the portside catapult chief, “we’re moving you out to the launch rail.” With a slight vibration Amuro’s clamped down mobile suit started moving left and moments later, was outside the ship with the launch catapult rail stretching out in front of him.

At the far end of the cat rail he could see the launch lights, four red and one green, stacked up one on top of another like traffic lights at an intersection, with the green one at the bottom. At the moment only the top light glowed a solid red, indicating that the launch sequence hadn’t started yet. Amuro looked over at the grey pained hull to his right and was surprised to see something new painted just forward of the open hanger door. With a quick command he isolated it and zoomed in. “HIGHWAY TO THE DANGER ZONE” it read, with an arrow underneath pointing forward towards the bow of the cruiser. “It has to have been Casval,” he muttered to himself as he turned his attention back to the lights at the end of the launch rail, “he’s always loved those 20th century war movies.” The single red light had started to flash, indicating a start to the launch sequence and five seconds later all four of the red lights glowed solid.

Amuro put his Zaku into a slight crouch and waited. The green light came on, “this is Ensign Amuro Ray, launching!” He was slammed back into his padded pilot’s seat with the acceleration provided by the electro-magnets in the catapult, halfway down the rail he was pressed even further into the seat by the automatic firing of his Zaku’s main backpack thrusters. A moment before reaching the end of the track the explosive bolts, holding the front and sides of the clamp closed fired releasing the Zaku’s feet and completing the task of flinging the mobile suit into open space.

He put his suit through some basic maneuvers to ensure its thrusters were functioning as the computer said they were and then checked his sensors to see the status of the other machines coming from the little battle group. Artesia had just pulled up to his right and a little behind him, with all the Svalinn’s Zaku IIFZ’s close behind her. Extending the range of his sensors slightly he noted the three Zakus from the two Musais were also out of their respective hangers and coming into formation. A beep from his navigation system indicated that it had been updated by the ship’s much more powerful array of sensors. He shifted his suit slightly to put the Earth and stars in the right spots to indicate a proper course.

“Is everyone on course?” he asked the rest of the suits and got a chorus of confirmations, “well then, here we go…”

EFSS Volga
Bridge

The young Lieutenant stood formally in front of the Admiral. “Sir the fleet is in liner line formation and we have reached the order point for launch.”

The Admiral nodded, waved the junior officer away and turned to the ship’s Captain. “Captain please start the firing clock, I’m going to address the fleet.” The other nodded, picking up his hand set to give the order while the Admiral reached for his own. “Communications, I want to be on the One-MC of every ship in the fleet.”

The bridge officer fiddled with his control panel for a moment, “go ahead sir.”

The Admiral raised the handset, “now hear this, now hear this, this is the Admiral speaking. We are about to launch a long range nuclear strike on the fortress of Solomon. The objective of this operation is to quickly, and with minimal loss of life, force our way past the fortress and to the heart of the enemy’s homeland. This swift, decisive action will end this war before it has a chance to start. I wish you all good luck and God speed.” He nodded to the Comm officer, who cut the connection, and looked over to the captain, “Time?”

“Seven seconds, sir.” The officer squirmed in his command seat.

“Not exactly happy about the use of nuclear weapons are you Captain?”

“No, I can’t say that I am sir. These weapons are a relic of the past and are far more effective as deterrents than actual weapons.”

“Well in this case we don’t have any other option Captain. We’ve been given our orders and we WILL follow them through.”

“Firing sequence beginning,” the weapons officer said from his station into the silent bridge, and the deck shook ever so slightly as electromagnets tossed the first dozen missiles out of their tubes. Twenty five meters out of there tubes their 1st stage engines ignited and began pushing the missiles to their 3500kph. After seventeen seconds the solid fuel first stages burnt out and fell off to allow the missiles to “cold cruise”, relying on the kinetic energy from the initial burn to take them most of the way to their target with very low thermal emissions.

“Sir,” the sensor officer responded, “optical sensors have just detected a small group of what appear to be warships.”

“Appear to be…” the Admiral’s voice was ice, “why don’t you be sure of what’s out there before you go setting off alarms on my bridge.”

“Sir, the computer’s working on resolving the image, it set off the alarms automatically when it reached a 50% probability…” a narrowing of the Admiral’s eyes made the man pause and swallow hard, “the image is resolving now sir, I’ll put it up on the main monitor.”

The Admiral turned away from the quaking sensor officer behind him to look at the large screen centered above the forward bridge windows. Even with the computer enhancement, the image was grainy, but it was good enough to confirm that there were three ships out there and they were defiantly warships.

“Computer says that we have two Musai class light cruisers and one Zanzibar class fast cruiser out there,” said the second sensor officer as the first was too scared to speak. “It looks as if they are directly in line with our heading, but a couple of degrees above it.”

The Volga’s Captain leaned across towards the Admiral, “Sir it’s just a patrol group, we can just sweep it out of our way with GM’s at our leisure.”

The Admiral pondered that for a moment, he doubted the group of enemy ships had detected the launch that had finished minutes before, but better to be safe than sorry. “Captain have an appropriate number of GMs deployed to protect the fleet from the patrol group, but we’ll ignore it so we can focus on the main objective of braking past Babylon. If it gives us trouble we’ll wipe it out.”

Ensign Amuro Ray
Forward Edge of the Babylon Battle Area

It would have been to the Federation’s fleet commander’s horror to know that his sneaky plan was already undone. The sensors in Amuro’s Zaku had detected the initial thermal blooms from the missile launches and at the moment he was working to determine their exact trajectory. They were obviously headed for Babylon, but he wanted to get more detailed information before he passed it back to Casval.

He was intent on his navigation display, computing estimated impact points and arrival times, when his sensor panel started screeching. Looking over he saw the entire screen was occupied by a single symbol and a line of bold text below it. “ZOINKS…” he breathed, it was the radiological alarm. Those missiles, the ones streaking towards Babylon had nuclear warheads underneath their nosecones; he reached for his communications panel to send a flash message back to the Svalinn, and saw that the automatic THUNDERBOLT alert system had already bundled all his sensor readings and sent the data back via laser pulse transmission.

“This is going to be a mess,” he grumbled as he keyed his system to transmit the data to the other mobile suits in the assault force, “a ZOINKS, ZOINKS mess.”

ZSS Svalinn
Bridge

The screeching alarms that came along with the THUNDERBOLT alert made Casval wince, it was the one alarm he had hoped never to hear. He believed that he had prepared himself for a war, but what was streaking towards them was something completely different from anything before.

He whirled towards the communications station, “warm up the communications laser and get all this alert data back to Babylon NOW!”

“Aye, aye sir” the comms officer answered and her hands started to fly across the keyboard in front of her. “It’s done sir and I got it to 12th Fleet command as well.”

“Good, now get me in touch with Ensign Ray.”

“I’ll have him on your command chair hand set by the time you can get back to it.”

Casval pushed himself off the spot on the deck, where the nuclear alert had rooted him, and swung himself into his bridge chair, snatching the handset out of its cradle at the same time. “You there Amuro?”

“Yeah,” came a tight voice, “want me to go after those missiles?”

“We don’t have enough suits and your suits don’t even have enough fuel to chase all those missiles. We’re going to take those missiles out with our own nukes, as a backup I’m going to call back the Zaku teams from the Musais and use them to go after any that sneak through the wall I’m going to throw up.”

“So what do you want Artesia, the rest and I to do?”

“You are to halt your advance and move 50 klicks relative “up” from it to keep you well out of the blast areas and main areas of heavy high energy photon concentration. As soon as the initial blasts subside I want you, Arty, and the FZs with you, to swoop down on those Fed ZOINKS and tear them up. With luck the detonation of out nukes will disorient them enough to allow you to do a disproportionate amount of damage. If not, get one good pass and get your asses out of there.”

“Roger that Casval, have the ground crew waiting with the paint and silhouette stencils, gonna have some kills to paint on the shoulder shields when we get back.”

Amuro broke the connection and Casval set the hand-set back down and turned to the weapons officer. “We have eighteen nukes onboard correct?”

“Yes sir, they are in special weapons secure storage bays three and four. I need your special code, along with two more from senior officers other than myself, to open the bays.”

Casval reached into his trouser pocket, pulled out his wallet and, opening it removed a card much like his cred card, except this card had only a 24 letter and number code on it. He handed the card to the weapons officer, “this is my nuclear weapons release code.”

The Svalinn’s XO stepped forward and presented his own and the communications officer came from her station to hand over her card, just beating out the sensor officer. The weapons officer took the cards and saluted Casval, “I have received the proper code cards from authorized officers and will now proceed to bays three and four and have the missiles prepared for use.”

Casval nodded, “make sure all the warheads are set to their maximum yield.”

“Right sir,” the weapons officer pushed off from the deck and entered the lift to take him down to the deck where the weapons were stored.

Casval then turned to the communications officer, who was still next to him after giving the weapons officer her “transmit the proper codes to the Tripoli and Graf Spee¬ and tell them to stand by for target data for nuclear weapons release.”

“Yes sir,” she returned to her station and began to send the complex encrypted codes to the two Musais.

Casval moved to the main tactical display and, along with the targeting team, spent the next four minutes calculating flight times and courses for all the missiles in the Svalinn group. The intercom at the stationed buzzed, “Captain speaking.”

“Sir, all missiles have been moved to the tubes and we are prepared to launch.”

“Very good,” Casval tapped a few keys, “I have forwarded launch timing and targeting information to you, and you are to coordinate the launch sequence with Tripoli and Graf Spee.”

There was a pause, “I have the information, transferring relevant targeting data to the other two ships now. I will begin launching in 30 seconds.”

Casval turned to the helmsman, “as soon as launch is complete I want the Svalinn brought to a halt and oriented so that the heat shield will be facing the blast area.”

“Aye sir,” came the response from the female ensign at the helm, and she began setting up the maneuver.

Finally, Casval again turned to the communication’s officer. “I want the two Musais in our shadow as soon as they are done launching, to give them the most protection possible. Also make sure the launch warning is sent to the mobile suits.”

“Aye sir,” she responded and, like the helmsman just before her she turned back to her console and bent to following the orders of her commanding officer.

“Alright people,” Casval said to the bridge at large, “here we go.” The Svalinn shuddered with the launch of the first six missiles.

Amuro Ray
Mobile Suit Hold Point

Amuro killed his main thrusters reoriented his suit and then flared those same engines a few times to kill all of his suit’s forward momentum. Around him Artesia and the other Zakus off the Svalinn were performing identical maneuvers, after a few moments they had all come to a halt. They tightened up their grouping and one of the FZs moved to place its hand on the shoulder shield of his R-2.

“Me and the boys are going to use our Zakus to make a wall between you, Ensign Deikun and the blast point.”

“That isn’t necessary Staff Sergeant,” Amuro began to protest, but he was cut off.

“We think it is Ensign and there isn’t time for an argument, the Svalinn’s missiles are going to reach their detonation point in just over a minute.”

Amuro looked down at the timer, which had started running at the launch of the first of the nukes from his home ship, and saw that the Staff Sargent was right, there wasn’t time to argue. With a note of surrender he answered, “If you and the men insist I guess there isn’t much Artesia or I will be able to say to stop you. Where do you want us?” A few moments later all the suits had faced away from the planed detonation points, the FZs had made a wall with their suits behind Amuro and Artesia’s Zakus, and the suits had locked down all of their sensors to keep them from being damaged by the high energy photons emitted when the warheads detonated.

**********
Out in the blackness the missiles fired by the Svalinn group reached their planned target point and detonated. Fission primaries used their energy to start the fusion secondary and tritium was added to the reaction to boost the yield of the reaction to 500 kilotons. Unlike when weapons had been detonated on Earth’s surface in the past these weapons did not send out any energy in the form of a shockwave, as in space there was no medium to carry one, but sent most of it out in the form of high energy photons such as X-Rays and Gamma rays.

These rays blasted out in every direction and with no atmosphere to absorb their energy they blasted much farther than they might have. When the highly concentrated rays met the body of a Federation missile they vaporized the outer layer of metal, creating a shockwave that wrecked the missile. Missiles that were closer to the detonating warheads were simply vaporized. Only a handful of Federation nuclear missiles made it through the caldron of fire and those were knocked down by the Zakus that Casval had tasked for that very job.

EFSS Volga
Bridge

All the screens that had been attached to external cameras were now nothing but static snow. The Admiral sat ridged in his command chair, the shutters had just come down when the screens had gone blank and turned to snow. It hadn’t been their weapons detonating; it had been too soon for that, so it must have been… He turned to look up at the two sensor officers above him, “where did those nuclear missiles come from!?! And why didn’t you detect them beforehand!”

Now both the sensor officers didn’t know what to say, but before the Admiral could continue to berate them the Captain leaned over to him, “sir, the only place those nukes could have come from is the patrol group which you instructed them to ignore, but this is beside the point. Many of our ships and deployed mobile suits are reporting massive sensor damage; as they had not finished locking the systems down to protect them from the detonation of our own weapons. Many ships are also reporting casualties to their bridge crews, flash burns, blindness and the like.”

The Admiral waved his hand in a dismissive fashion, “use blinker lights to have all damaged ships fall out of the formation,” he pointed at the three red points on the tactical display that indicated the estimated position of the Zeon patrol group, “and dispatch the GM battalion lashed to the decks of Cruiser Squadron 2, wipe those ships out of the sky!”

He pounded his fist on the armrest of his command chair as his fleet’s damage report started to come up on his screen. Not only had that pesky group of ships destroyed all of the missiles that the plan had called to knock out the enemy’s fleet, but seven of his Salamis class cruisers and a single Magellan class battleship, were turning out of the battle line. “Sir,” the call came from the communication’s officer and he waved his hand absentmindedly for the officer to proceed, the officer did. “Sir the mobile suit corps commander on the Casablanca reports that it will be fifteen to twenty minutes before he will have a coherent force to strike the Zeon patrol group. This is due to the fact that many of the suits which he had deployed already have been damaged into inoperability by the nuclear detonations, and the ready launch battalion is currently conducting rescue and recovery operations.”

“The commander IS aware that we DO have more than two battalions of GMs,” the Admiral cut in, acid filled his voice.

The communications officer quailed under the stare that Admiral gave him, but continued his report. “A third battalion is being briefed right now, but it will take time to have them all launched and formed up for a strike against the Zeon group. He also notes that this battalion will not be available for the engagement with the fleet guarding Babylon.”

The Admiral was about to wave that away too when one of the sensor officers almost screeched, “ENEMY MOBILES, STARBOARD BOW, HIGH!”

“WHAT!” the Admiral yelled in disbelief, the damn Zeeks had beaten him to the punch. “Get a visual! I want it up on the monitor NOW!” With a few computer commands from the junior officer an operable camera pod on top of the bridge unmasked itself, swiveled, elevated and focused its large lens. There were six of them, four were the Zeek’s newest FZ type Zaku II, but two were not. Not only were they not the standard green that Zeon liked to paint their mobile suits, one was white and black while the other was orange and tan, but they weren’t in the Volga’s extensive database of recognized shapes. Fear started to creep into the Admiral’s voice, “what the hell are those?” the white machine, which was in the lead, raised its machine gun and fired.

Artesia Som Deikun
Attacking the Federation’s 4th Fleet

“It doesn’t look like they have many suits out to protect their ships,” Amuro’s voice crackled out of Artesia’s cockpit speakers, “split into pairs like we planned, lead suit create a hole in a ship’s defenses, trailing suit finishes them off.” The pilots of the four FZs chorused acknowledgements and there was a slight burst of static as Artesia switched to the frequency that she would use with Amuro and a second later there was another as he came on too. “You ready Artey?” his voice still held a little of the concern he had shown before they had launched.

Artesia didn’t feel ready, but at this point she didn’t have much of a choice, she put as much confidence as she could into her response. “You set ‘em up and I’ll knock ‘em down” and to her surprise, she felt a little more confident.

“Alright…” he let it hang for a second and then continued, “Follow me in.” In front of her, he kicked his Zaku’s thrusters to their maximum output as the first yellow white streaks of tracer fire reached out from the Federation warships. She brought the massive 360mm bazooka, her suit carried, up and moved here Zaku’s left hand across to hold the weapon’s fore grip, giving her a more stable firing stance. Amuro had already raised his suit’s own weapon, one of the new MMP-80 90mm machine guns, and fired two quick bursts destroying a Salamis class ship’s two machine gun turrets. He then snap rolled his suit to its left, the ship’s mega-particle turrets trying to track him, giving Artesia a clear shot. She nudged her controls to the right to give her a shot at the side of the cruiser. She squeezed the main trigger and a rocket lanced out and moments later struck the side of the warship. The shaped charge warhead detonated, sending a hypersonic jet of molten copper lancing through the thick armor plate, into and through several fuel tanks and finally into the ship’s reactor. This caused a catastrophic explosion that obliterated the rear half of the ship and also caused secondary explosions that left the front half a twisted and unrecognizable hulk. Before that had even finished Artesia was far past the ship, following Amuro deeper into the enemy fleet.

In less than five minutes the two Newtypes had slashed their way through the enemy, leaving ten enemy ships totally destroyed or damaged and being abandoned by their crews. They paused after coming out of the rear of the formation and Artesia tossed her suit’s empty bazooka away and snatched her own MMP-80 off the rear skirt armor of her Zaku. Their next pass through the Federation fleet wouldn’t be so easy. From everywhere in the fleet boiled red and white, skinny looking, mobile suits, if Artesia remembered the intel briefings correctly they were called GMs.

Her radio crackled to life, through all the snaps and hisses caused by the Minovsky jamming, she heard her brother’s voice. “To all Svalinn mobile suits attacking the Federation fleet, you are ordered to withdraw as quickly as you can.” Artesia acknowledged and hoped her mobile suit’s far less powerful transmitter punched through the jamming, almost as an afterthought she tried to send her feelings to her brother as they had had some success doing back at the Institute in Granada.

“He knows Artesia,” Amuro’s voice came through clearly which surprised her. She looked over to her right hand monitor and saw that his Zaku’s left hand had come to rest on the shoulder shield of her own machine. “It’s going to be a tough fight to get back to the ship,” he sounded all business again, “so let’s get to it and make the Feds pay in the process.”

She nodded and, remembering that they weren’t talking with a video link replied, “Lead on then.” With her mobile suit’s empty hand she made an ‘after you’ gesture, which got a laugh out of Amuro before he broke the skin talk connection and turned his suit back towards the Federation fleet, which was now boiling with GMs, like an ant hill kicked over by a six year old. He fired his main engines and a moment later she did too, following him back into the mess she had helped make minutes earlier.

It took the GM’s a moment to notice the two Zaku’s rocketing at them, when they did, it was too late for the first group. At the ridiculously close range of 300 meters she let loose with a five round burst from the machine gun. As the rounds left the barrel the aluminum sabots, that allowed the rounds to fit into the machine gun’s barrel, fell away and the 40mm tungsten tipped, depleted uranium, penetrators lanced out at over a mile a second. The titanium armor of the GM was not up to the task of keeping the high velocity rounds out and three of the five blew through the cockpit turning the pilot into nothing more than a pink mist which froze as the cold vacuum of space rushed in. The two other rounds, hit the GM’s reactor, turning the GM into an almost perfect spherical explosion behind Artesia.

As she and Amuro worked their way back through the Federation fleet, they took pot shots at warships and GMs. While the MMP-80s that they used were perfectly effective at destroying the enemy mobile suits, they had a much harder time at doing serious damage to the Salamis and Magellan class ships. A burst into the bridge or engine would do a lot of damage, but not the same amount as a round from her 360mm bazooka would.

Amuro was staying a little ahead and to her right, expertly blasting anything that might have slowed down their progress back to the Svalinn, when around the bow of a Salamis cruiser came a GM, its long rod like heat saber raised high. ‘Look out!’ the shout wasn’t in words, but in her mind. Amuro raised the MMP-80, his suit held in its right hand, and blocked the downward slash. The dense metal of the weapon’s bolt slowed down the saber’s progress long enough to allow Amuro to use his suit’s free left hand to snatch one of the beam sabers off its recharge rack on the Zaku’s rear skirt armor. In one fluid motion he brought the weapon up, igniting it along the way, and relieving the GM of the lower portion of its forearm and the saber that it held. The GM tried to retaliate, with the vulcans in its head, but Amuro ducked below their line of fire, spun and neatly bisected the suit through the cockpit.

Artesia had stopped to cover Amuro, as he dealt with the GM, blasting at turrets on the surrounding enemy warships that tried to come to bear on her boyfriend. Her MMP-80 clicked on an empty chamber and she stripped the empty magazine out of the weapon with her Zaku’s free hand. Before she had a chance to drop the empty magazine a GM came swooping out from under an enemy cruiser to her left. Instead of reaching for one of the beam sabers she rammed the empty magazine through the GM’s main camera and slammed one of her Zaku’s feet into the chest of the tinny Federation mobile suit, crumpling it in and sending the doomed mech slamming into the hull of the cruiser, where it exploded blowing a massive hole in the side of the warship.

Having dealt with her would be attacker she turned back to check on Amuro. He was still there and when he saw her mobile suit turn towards him he gave a jaunty three fingered wave, using the suit’s thumb and forefinger to keep hold of the deactivated beam saber hilt. With that done he blasted off on the course that they had been following originally, doing a quick snap roll to her right to avoid the major part of the debris from the destroyed ship next to her, she followed. After what felt like an hour to her, but couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes, they broke free of the Federation fleet and rocketed to the rendezvous with the Svalinn. She hardly noticed the sigh of relief she let out when the Zaku’s touched down in the rear landing bay and the feet’s electromagnets stuck them to the black painted metal deck plating.

Amuro received a call from the Svalinn’s bridge as he touched down behind Artesia. Casval’s face appeared on the communications monitor, he looked a little pale, “is Artesia OK?”

Amuro looked at his forward monitor, there was Artesia’s orange and tan Zaku in front of him being checked for excess radiation. The ground crew in the heavy space suits apparently didn’t find anything too hot, because they waved for her to proceed into the hanger proper and for him to move forward to be checked over by the Geiger counters, “Uh… yeah Cas she’s fine, she landed before me.”

“That’s not what I meant,” he started before Amuro cut him off.

“I don’t really know Cas. She did fine out there, took out a GM with an empty magazine from her MMP-80, but I really don’t know how she’s feeling. I bet it’s something like how I’m feeling, but I’ll know more when I talk to her, if you want to know more I’m sure you would do better to ask her yourself rather than ask me to spy on her for you.” Amuro broke the connection, annoyed at Casval for asking him to spy on Artesia, “if he wants to know he can ask her his damn self.”

By now he had moved out of the landing bay, which ran from its opening between the two main engine pods into the hanger, and into the hanger. Artesia had turned her suit around and was in the process of backing it into the maintenance frame that was its home. Amuro backed his suit into the one next to hers, powered his suit down to its standby/maintenance mode and popped the hatch open. Artesia was already out and standing on the lift that would take her down to the deck. Amuro pushed off from his suit, floated across the space between the two suits and caught the railing that went around the platform Artesia was standing on, swinging himself to stand next to her.

She had been looking across the hanger until she felt Amuro land next to her, then she turned her head and looked up at the slightly taller Amuro. There were tears in her eyes. Amuro tossed his helmet aside; the hanger had been re-pressurized after he had landed and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her in a tight embrace. “It’s OK,” he loosened one hand from his grip on her to reach up and smooth her hair.

From where she had pressed her face to his chest her voice floated up to his ears, “I know. I think it’s just the adrenaline leaving my system.” She looked up at him, tears streaked her face, but she was smiling. “We made it back and that’s what counts right now.” Normally she wasn’t into public displays of affection, but now she kissed him squarely and forcefully, taking him quite by surprise. Surprise wore off quickly; he pulled her as close as he could and the kiss went on until he had to break away to breath. She gave him a playful impish smile, “you need to learn to breathe through your nose.” She gave him another quick peck on the lips and pushed away from him to tap the control to lower the lift to the deck. Hand in hand they made their way to the hatch that would get them to the closest lift to the bridge.

Bridge
ZSS Svalinn

Casval Rem Deikun paced around the bridge, the magnets in his boots keeping him on the deck despite the Zero-G. The storm cloud, that had started when he had gotten confirmation of the loss of two of his FZ pilots, had just gotten worse when Amuro cut him off while he was trying to check on his sister. He had wanted to sortie with the two younger Newtypes, but the burden of command had prevented that, he had wanted to know how his sister was, but Amuro had cut him off. The exhilaration he had gotten of preventing the Federation fleet’s nuclear attack was being crushed by his mounting annoyance.

A hiss of compressed air behind him told him someone was entering the bridge and he turned and all that annoyance simply washed away, there was his sister and, while she didn’t look perfectly OK, she did seem to be better than he expected her to be after her first combat sortie. It took him a second to notice that Amuro was next to her and her hand was tightly wrapped in his. That sent a pang through him. He had known his sister and Amuro had a thing for each other, but seeing it made it real in a way that he hadn’t thought it would. His chain of though was broken when the two dropped their hands, snapped to attention and saluted him.

Casval returned the salute, “good to have you both back. I am sorry to report that Sgt. Mann and Cpl. Turner both were downed, not sure if a ship or the Feddies GMs got them, but they were lost during their first pass through the fleet.”

Artesia and Amuro looked crest fallen, the two adult pilots had taken the two young Newtypes under their wing when they had come aboard and now, they were gone. Amuro broke the silence first, “so when are we going back out to pay the damn Feds back?!”

Casval held up his hand, “it’s not going to be for a while. The 12th fleet is moving in to engage and Commodore Ral wants to hold us in reserve, he says we fight out of our weight-class.”

The sensor officer broke in, “Captain Deikun, it’s begun.”

Everyone who hadn’t been looking out the bridge windows, turned towards them. Beams crisscrossed the starry blackness, missiles raced about like shooting stars and when either of them came into contact with anything they vaporized, smashed and destroyed.

Along with those flashes of light came waves of emotions, which Casval felt wash over him and could see affect his sister and Amuro. The two were wincing from time to time, as powerful emotions flowed through them. He felt them too, but had a better handle on controlling their effects on him, “or maybe I’m just less powerful than they are.”

Bridge
EFSS Volga

The Admiral of the Earth Federation’s 4th was not happy with the way that the battle was going, No, he thought to himself, he wasn’t just “unhappy” he was PISSED! “What are you doing?!” he raged at the bridge crew. “We have over three times the number of ships as they do and yet; WE CAN’T BREAKTHROUGH!”

“Sir,” the captain broke in, “we need to use our ships and mobile suits in coordinated attacks. The Zeon commander is doing this masterfully, pulling his suits back to defend the ships when we make concerted pushes and using the ships to lend the mobile suits heavy firepower when they want to push back.”

Bridge
Gwazine Class Command Ship
ZSS Santa Cruz

Commodore Jimba Ral, on the other hand, was extremely pleased with the way that the battle was unfolding. The commander of the EFSF fleet had obviously not been expecting his long range nuclear barrage to be detected, much less intercepted. “Going to have to buy Casval a beer when we get back to Babylon,” he said with a smile. That boy had probably won the battle for him, but that didn’t mean the Federal forces had figured that out yet. They had come at him in the same old way, charging at him like an angry elephant with no subtlety, and no finesse.

The Federation had drove for the center of his formation and he had allowed his squadron of warships and the two others that made up that center to be slowly driven back, always staying engaged, but not really mixing it up with the much larger enemy fleet. The six squadrons of Musais that made up his flanks had swung wide, three to each side of the enemy fleet and had then turned back in, smashing into the relatively unguarded sides of the Feddie’s formation. That maneuver had halted their advance and it looked as if the cohesion of the fleet was starting to waver.

“Sir!” it was his comm officer.

“What is it commander?”

“Message from the Prince Eugen, they have detected a sizable enemy force breaking for polar north out of the contained enemy fleet.”

Jimba Ral turned to look back at the tactical display and realized almost instantly that none of the forces currently engaged would be able to attack the group. Despite the superior coordination between his ships and mobile suits there were just so many Feds that he couldn’t spare any.

“Update from the Prince Eugen sir,” the comms officer called out again, “they have types and numbers of the group breaking off. They count twelve Salamis class cruisers, six Magellan class battleships and one of those new assault carriers we’ve been hearing rumblings about.”

That was a lot of firepower and Jimba Ral had no doubt that the assault carrier, he though the class was called Pegasus, was the flagship of the whole enemy fleet. He also didn’t doubt that the group of ships was maneuvering to launch another nuclear attack on Babylon.
“Get orders to Captain Deikun on the Svalinn. His group is to engage and destroy that enemy group or at the very least destroy any missiles that are fired.”

“Sending now sir,” the comms officer bent over his console to encrypt the orders and then send them out using the Santa Cruz’s high powered communications laser.

“Sir,” the Captain of the Santa Cruz alighted next to the Commodore, “I know that those three ships are excellent, but that’s still one short of twenty they’re taking on.”

“Captain,” Jimba Ral sighed, “we don’t have any other ships to send. We must rely on those three ships and the three young Newtypes.

Bridge
ZSS Svalinn

“Orders coming in from Fleet Captain,” the comms officer typed in a few commands to decrypt and a new display popped up on the bridge tactical display. It showed a group of close to twenty warships breaking out of the encircled Federation fleet and turning to continue their advance towards Babylon. “Umm… sir…” the communications officer trailed off.

“Let me guess, the Commodore wants us to attack and defeat that group?”

“Something like that sir, we are to engage the fleet yes, but we are to stop any missiles that the enemy fleet fires, at any cost.”

Casval sighed, doubtless this group would be firing yet another barrage of nuke tipped missiles at the asteroid fortress guarded by 12th Fleet and he, along with his task force, was to stop them. He turned away from the tactical display he had been looking at and to his XO. “XO I will leave the control of the ships to you. Take them to this point here,” he indicated a point in front and above the Federation group’s line of advance, “once there Amuro, Artesia and I will be launching to make a direct assault on the group. I would like several volleys of missiles to be fired in preparation for my attack; I will give the launch order by tight beam laser comm.”

“You won’t be taking any of the FZs with you sir?” the XO seemed concerned.

“No they will be staying with you, as you have the far more important task of stopping any missiles that are fired. Also I have no doubt that the enemy commander will send a large part, if not all of his GMs at you once you fire your missiles.”

“Sir, even with those mobile suits away those ships are going to be very alert; it might be too much for even the three of you to handle.”

Casval had already pushed off from the deck and was floating towards the lift doors, he slid a hand into his pocket to check and see if something was there, “I have a little plan to shake those Feds up just before we hit them.”

Hanger Deck
ZSS Svalinn

Twelve minutes after leaving the bridge Casval was scrambling into the hatch of his personal MS-06R-2 High Mobility (Newtype Use) Zaku II. On his way down to the hanger he had stopped by Artesia’s quarter’s and banged on the hatch to let the two teens, he had no doubt that Amuro was in there too, know that they were sortieing again. He pushed himself into the nicely padded seat, strapped himself down and leaned as far forward as he could to receive his normal suit helmet from his crew chief.

“Good luck to you Captain,” the crew chief gave him a thumb’s up and ducked out of the Zaku’s cockpit. Casval flipped the suit’s power supply mode from maintenance, where it pulled electricity from the ship, to full military cranking the suit’s Minovsky fusion reactor to its full 1400Kw power rating.

“Alice,” he queried his suit’s AI as the main computer booted up, “is my special program ready for use?”

“Affirmative Lieutenant Deikun, the program is set and ready to execute on your command.”

“Excellent,” he flipped on his communications suite, “you two ready to go yet?” For an answer the two other R-2s stepped out of their maintenance frames and turned towards the closed hatch that lead out into space and the catapult that would launch them towards the Feds.

Artesia answered, “we’re ready to go Cas.”

Amuro’s white and black Zaku hefted the MMP-80 it was carrying, “let’s get out there and teach the damn Feds a lesson that they’ll never forget.”

“Alright then,” he switched to a different circuit, “alright XO, let’s get this show on the road.”

“Right sir,” the hanger’s launch hatch opened and Casval moved his suit to it, stepped its feet into the catapult’s shackles. The shackles rotated 90 degrees, facing Casval’s red painted Zaku towards the Svalinn’s bow; the mobile suit went into its automatic launch crouch and brought its own MMP-80 up to port arms.

“This is Casval Rem Deikun, LAUNCHING!” Acceleration slammed him back into his seat once and pressed him back even harder halfway down the catapult rail when the suit’s massive backpack thrusters kicked in to add their own power to the launch. In an instant it was over and the 18-meter mobile suit streaked off into space. Casval gave the suit’s readouts a once over; to make sure everything was copasetic, then started making his course corrections. On his center screen he kept a small window open, that displayed a wide-angle rear view and in short order it showed first Artesia’s tan and orange Zaku, then Amuro’s white, black and red suit, falling into formation behind him. He just barely saw the white yellow flashes that indicated the beginning of his task force’s missile barrage, before he closed the window.

Bridge
EFSS Volga

“Skipper, we have detected flashes indicating missile launches at 12 o’clock high,” the sensor officer tapped the command to send his data to the Captain’s personal display, “data analysis indicates three ships…” the officer trailed off as he scrutinized the data on his screen for another few moments. “Sir, I think it’s those same three that attacked the fleet vanguard earlier. Yes it defiantly is, one Zanzibar class and two high speed Musai class ships.”

“I want those ships destroyed,” growled the Admiral, “this war could well be on it’s way to being over if they hadn’t decided to meddle.” He snapped his hand out in front of him, fingers splayed, like some Admiral in the days of sail, “deploy all GMs to destroy those meddlesome fools so that this fleet may proceed with its mission.”

“Sir these are the same ships with those Newtype Zakus aboard, perhaps we should…”

The Captain was cut off by the Admiral’s explosive outburst, “NEWTYPES DO NOT EXIST CAPTAIN!” Spit flew from his mouth as he continued his tirade, “they are nothing more than Zeon propaganda designed to make us think they are not the eggshell nation that the really are.”

“Aye, aye sir,” was all the Captain could manage to say, the rest of his mental energy was focused on not reaching across the command consol and throttling the idiot, politically acceptable, moron in command. Instead he leaned towards the ship’s mobile suit control officer, who was the acting control officer for the taskforce, “order all mobile suits to intercept that group of enemy ships.” He turned to look up at the two sensor officers at the top of the bridge tree, “the enemy knows where we are so pull out all the stops, full power to all sensors. I have no doubt that they’ll try another off axis attack like they did before.”

“Aye sir,” chorused the two officers and they tapped the computer commands and the ship’s sensors went to their max rating, pumping dozens of megawatts of RF energy out into space. Through the main bridge windows and on the dozens of large screens around the bridge, the Captain could see the GMs leaving their CSP positions and forming into a large formation to go after the small Zeon detachment. He also fervently hoped that it wouldn’t come back to bite them in the ass in short order.

Casval Rem Deikun
Babylon Battle Space

Casval noted all of the GMs moving out of the formation of ships and shot a quick, tight beam, transmission back to the Svalinn. He doubted his ship had missed the movement, but he wanted to make sure they had all the warning possible.

“Standard Federation code. I believe they are relying more on the direct nature of the transmission rather than encryption for their communications security. I have a stored Federation code that should allow the data packet into their fleet net and from there it can self disseminate to all the ships in the group.”

“How long do you think it’ll survive before their AIs squash it?”

“Two to three minutes is my best estimate sir,” the Alice seemed almost depressed that she hadn’t been able to do better.

Casval motioned with the his Zaku’s hand, Artesia and Amuro both moved in close and came in contact with his suit, activating the “skin-talk” connection.

“As soon as the missiles reach the enemy formation we will begin to move in. At exactly one minute from contact Alice will insert a worm into the Fed data link to add to the confusion of our initial strike.”

“What does this devious plan of yours entail?” Amuro asked over the link.

Casval chuckled, “you’ll see, tune your secondary audio channel to prefix frequency nine and I’ll have my AI sync the file that is embedded in the worm to your computers it will start playing when it does for the Feds,” a mischievous grin broke across his face, “but you’ll be able to turn it off with the press of a button.”

At that moment tracers started to arc out from the forward ships of the Federation battle group, searching for the incoming Zeon missiles and finding a few, but more got through. A Salamis class ship disintegrated under the impact of three multi-ton warheads and other ships took damage from near misses and scratch hits.

“Alright you two,” Casval began to accelerate his Zaku towards the enemy, “follow me.” As the three accelerated towards the enemy ships the AI in his Zaku estimated the time to contact continually. When that time reached one minute it sent a tight beam laser pulse at the Pegasus class assault ship, more accurately it aimed the pulse at one of the ship’s receiver arrays and a few milliseconds later the worm had been inserted into the ships systems and began its work.

Bridge
EFSS Volga

A god awful racket poured out of the bridge speakers, “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?” bawled the captain at the communications officer.

“I have no idea sir,” the color was quickly draining from the officer’s face, “but it’s playing full blast all over the ship.”

“Well turn the damn noise off, shut down the intercom system!”

Lyrics had begun to blare out along with what was now recognized as electrified guitars and drums.

All you women who want a man of the street
Don't know which way you wanna turn
Just keep coming
And put your hand out to me
Cause I'm the one who's gonna make you burn
I'm gonna take you down
Down down down
So don't you fool around
I'm gonna pull it pull it
…

Artesia Som Deikun
Babylon Battle Space

“Pull the trigger!” blared into Artesia’s cockpit and she did, sending a 360mm rocket lancing out towards the top of a Salamis class cruiser’s bridge tower. Her brother had always had a thing for the 20th and 21st century rock.

“Shoot to thrill!” pulsed out a moment later and the armor piercing rocket hit the enemy ship, punching all the way though the bridge structure and into the main body of the ship, where it detonated, taking the whole ship with it.

Off to her left both Casval and Amuro were firing off long bursts of 90mm rounds, to follow the single grenades that they had each fired from the gun’s under-slung launcher. The grenades, followed by the depleted uranium armor piercing rounds, did much the same as her one rocket had and two more Salamis class cruisers buckled under the fire and exploded.

She had already shifted her aim, this time centering the maw of her massive bazooka on a Magellan class battleship. She pulled the main armament trigger twice more and a round lanced into the bridge and second crashed through into the ship’s main engine room, the reactor ran away and just after the three Newtypes flashed through the formation the ship disappeared in a almost perfect white sphere of light.

Bridge
EFSS Volga

The light from the de Gaulle’s death was just starting to fade and the Admiral was livid. They had done it to him AGAIN! Next to him the Volga’s Captain was shouting orders, the excitement even breaking through his tough exterior, and quite rapidly the fleet was started to put up an effective barrage. The Zaku’s, there were three this time, made another pass and they had to focus all of their firepower to take out a fourth Salamis; the Carney.

The loud rock music, which had been blasting through the ship’s speakers since just before the attack, suddenly cut off. “Sir, the ship’s AI has purged the foreign code, ship and fleet systems are now 100% clear of the worm.”

“Excellent!” the Admiral rubbed his hands together almost giddy with anticipation of his next command. “Captain, do we have a firing solution for that damn Zeek asteroid?”

The Captain hesitated, “Sir… we are under attack and stopping the ships defensive maneuvering for a missile run will…”

The Admiral was sick of the man second-guessing his every command. “YOU ARE RELIEVED CAPTAIN, YOU ARE CONFINED TO YOUR QUARTERS AND SHOULD CONSIDER YOURSELF UNDER ARREST PENDING CHARGES!” Getting out of his command chair, the captain of the Volga snapped off a parade ground salute and left the bridge, the Admiral didn’t notice the fact that the relived officer hadn’t got in the lift, but had in fact, gone into his ready room off the rear of the bridge.

“Now,” the fleet commander turned to the ship’s weapon’s officer, “do we have a solution for that fortress out there?”

“We do sir,” the man turned back to his board, “if we fire now 85-90% of the missiles fired should impact the target…”

“Wonderful!” the Admiral exclaimed, “have the firing solution sent and initiated as soon as possible.”

Hesitating the officer spoke up again, “sir, with this solution missiles that miss the target will enter the Side 5 area and possibly…” he trailed off not really wanting to contemplate the millions of deaths that the detonation of a single errant warhead would cause.

The bridge crew expected another eruption from the man, but were surprised by the Admiral’s response, “it’s alright son. We’re at war and sometimes bad things happen, stay calm in the knowledge that you were just following orders.”

The man swallowed and gave a nod that was little more than a jerk of his head, “the firing solution is set and awaits your command to initiate sir.”

Looking down at the touch screen attached to the front of his command chair’s right armrest, the Admiral saw that the red “LAUNCH” icon flash into existence. With his forefinger he pressed the LCD display and a moment later the ship shuddered with the launch of an even dozen missiles. “Now you spacenoids will pay,” he muttered as he watched the blue white engine plumes disappear into the black.

Casval Rem Deikun
Babylon Battle Space

He saw the white smoke explode from all the Magellan’s missile tube exhaust ports and snap rolled his Zaku to the right and dropped his suit below the enemy battleship’s line of fire. As soon as the first blunt, rounded, orange nose of a missile came out of its tube a lead ball of ice formed in the pit of his stomach and a second later the radiological alarm began screeching its warning again. “Babylon this is Svalinn 6, you have incoming nuclear tipped missiles.” The suit didn’t send the warning message right away, as the Minovsky particle density was too high for even the most powerful radio to punch through, but as soon as it was oriented in the correct direction a powerful communications laser pulsed the message out. At the speed of light the commander of the asteroid fortress knew what was headed his way.

What was noticed by no one was the fact that as one of the EFSF battleships launched its missiles it took a hit and was knocked off target, sending three volleys of the weapons on much more dangerous vectors.

Command Center
Space Fortress Babylon

After almost seven minutes of abject terror the commander of the asteroid fortress let out a sigh of relief. The point defenses, scattered over the surface of the nickel iron asteroid like zits on the face of a particularly unlucky teenager, had destroyed every single missile that had gotten past the Svalinn’s battle group, with only one having detonated close enough to have done damage and then only to surface instillations.

“Oh god…” one of his tracking officers whispered from a console in front of him.

“What is it?!” he asked in alarm, “do we have more incoming?” His eyes scanned the massive screens that allowed him to keep track of what was going on outside his deeply buried command room and didn’t see anything. He turned to look down at the now ghostly pale junior officer, “damn it man what do you see?”

The man tried twice to speak, failed, took a ragged breath and managed a low croak of a whisper, “sir there are more missiles, but they aren’t aimed at us. They’re heading for Side 5 and there isn’t a thing we can do because they’re passing over our defensive zones that were knocked out by the near miss.” He tapped a command and his display was opened in a window on one of the main tactical displays.

The commander broadcast an emergency message with every piece of communications gear Babylon possessed and kept doing so as he watched in horror as eighteen thermonuclear missiles headed for the densely packed colonies that made up Side 5.

Amuro Ray
Babylon Battle Space

Amuro had just finished another pass through the Federation task force when the alert message flashed through his communications suite. As he was at quite a distance from the enemy ships he let his Zaku’s AI handle basic evasive maneuvers and he turned the suit to face the group of colonies that sparkled like the stars that made up their background. Then death flashed among the sparkles and the Zaku clamped filters over all its optical sensors to protect them from the light from the blasts, but the filters couldn’t block everything out.

The emotions of the dying smashed into him like the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs. People were vaporized, suffocated in their shelters or were sucked out into the frozen blackness of space. The terror, anger and sadness of the dead and dying flowed into him and overrode… everything. He didn’t even realize that he was screaming inside his cockpit.

“YOU KILLED THEM!!! YOU KILLED THEM ALL!!!” He slammed his controls to the right, whipping the Zaku around to face back towards. “First my parents,” he was crying now and he pointed at where the colonies where dying with his Zaku’s finger, “and now all of them…” A final flash in the distance, a final colony died and another tsunami of emotions washed over Amuro and he pressed the foot pedals, controlling the Zaku’s main thrusters, all the way to the floor.

“You’ll pay, you’ll all pay!” He selected his first target, a Salamis class cruiser, and emptied his last 32-round magazine into the top of the warship’s bridge tower. Blazing down past the now crippled Salamis he tossed the empty machine cannon aside and drew both beam sabers off of their recharge on the Zaku’s rear skirt armor and, igniting both of the weapons, he started to make his way though the collection of Federation ships, leaving slashed open hulls, explosive decompression and explosions in his wake.

EFSS Volga

The Admiral was well aware of the white Zaku, now tearing its way through what remained of the detachment that he had taken from his main fleet to make the second nuclear strike in the spacenoid’s asteroid fortress. He had watched with annoyance as the missiles that had been fired were intercepted, first by that damned three ship taskforce that his GMs seemed incapable of destroying, and then all that made it past them were intercepted by the asteroid’s own point defense weapons. He hardly flinched when some errant weapons detonated among the colonies of Side 5. The cost of war, he thought, shouting orders to the communications officer. He wanted the GMs back; they may not have been able to destroy those three damn ships but he was sure that they would be more than capable of keeping the three Zaku’s at bay while he regrouped his fleet and withdrew from this disaster. He was sure that he would be blamed for this failure.

“Admiral!” the helmsman cried out, “direct front. It’s the white one!” The man had one hand on the ship’s wheel but the other was pointing out the bridge’ forward, eight foot high, view port. There, coming around a now fire wreathed Magellan, was the white high mobility Zaku II.

One of the sensor officers got a high-resolution lens locked on the suit just long enough to catch a glimpse of the suit’s shoulder shield and the blood red unicorn that graced its upper third. “The blood unicorn…” came the gasp in the suddenly silent bridge, then the white suit’s mono-eye flared red and was gone, evading the laser targeting system that was supposed to keep the camera aimed weapons to track.

“DON’T LOSE YOUR HEADS!” roared the XO who had come up from the secondary bridge and taken the seat of the Volga’s relieved Captain. “I want a full forward barrage, and drop those damn battle shutters.” A moment after he gave the order, every weapon that could fire forward opened up, throwing projectiles and mega particle beams out into space. The captain gave the barrage a ten count then asked, “effect?”

“None sir!” the sensor officer that replied was barely holding it together. “Our weapons track towards its predicted path, but by the time they get there the damn thing has already evaded.”

“Cancel auto tracking, throw up a wall…” the XO was interrupted by a huge metallic clang and an immense shaking that slammed the whole bridge crew around in their seat restraints.

A voice crackled over the bridge’s speakers, “it’s a good thing you bastards closed your shutters; don’t want you to see what’s coming, just like those colonists didn’t.”

“Guns that can bear shoot that bastard off my bridge,” the XO yelled turning to the weapons officer, while the Admiral was the only one who saw the shutters glow yellow and flash to vapor as a green yellow blade slashed its way into the bridge.

Artesia Som Deikun
Babylon Battle Space

She and Casval caught up to Amuro just after he slashed one of his beam sabers into the bridge of one of the Federation’s new assault carriers as the ship’s point defenses tried and failed to target his Zaku. The two siblings had felt the same wave of emotion, but both had more success keeping their own emotions under control than Amuro. The personal pain in his life gave the river of emotions easy access to his heart and it was just too much for him to hold back. The rage he felt towards the ones that had chased him from his home and then killed his parents.

They crashed down onto the central deck of the gray white warship, on either side of Amuro’s white and black painted Zaku just as he pulled the glowing blade of his saber out if the melted interior of the ship’s bridge and whatever lay behind it. “Amuro that’s enough, they’re starting to pull back.”

She reached out with her own mobile suit’s hand, to pull Amuro away and back to the waiting Svalinn. When her suit’s hand came in contact with his the ‘skin talk’ system activated, “It will NEVER be enough.” He drew the saber back again, aiming the tip of the weapon at the secondary bridge and stabbing it forward again.

A red painted Zaku hand flashed out and stopped the forward progress of then blade just as it penetrated the ship’s command tower again. “That is enough Ensign Ray, we are withdrawing,” Artesia’s brother’s voice had a note of finality in it that not even the enraged Amuro could contend with.

“Roger that Lieutenant Deikun,” Amuro’s voice was a dead monotone as he pulled the saber back from the small hole it had burned in the secondary bridge and Artesia saw a few normal suited bodies get sucked out into the vacuum. Together they turned their suits pushed off from the crippled Fed warship and fired their thrusters to begin the flight back to the Svalinn.

EFSS Volga
Secondary Brigde

Lieutenant Junior Grade Bright Noa attached a magnetic handle to the hatch leading from the command tower into the secondary bridge and pulled with all his strength, he needn’t have done so. The power was out in this section of the ship and the electromagnetic seal for the door wasn’t functioning anymore. Cracking the door started the outrush of air and Bright sealed the faceplate of his normal suit.

“Engineering this is Bright. I have made it to the Sub-Bridge and have found it in a depressurized state. I am going in now to make a thorough inspection and to check for survivors.”

He entered the bridge and found it mostly intact except for the fact that there was no one in it. All the ships secondary command staff had been sucked out a five foot wide hole that had been burned in the front of the room. “The bastards killed them, just poked a hole and let cold space do the rest.” He walked in; his mag-boots keeping him attached to the deck plating and took the command seat. With a few taps on a command console he connected his normal suit’s comm system to the ship’s announcement system.

“Now hear this, now hear this, this is Lieutenant Bright Noa from the secondary bridge. All the ship’s command staff is dead and I am talking command. This ship is leaving the battle area and making course for Luna II for repair, refit and resupply. The Spacenoids have dealt us a serious blow today, but they have no hope against we, the true rulers of the earth sphere.” He broke then connection and moved from the seat to the helm station. With the help of the ship’s AI he plotted a course to the Federation’s own asteroid base, promising himself that one day soon he would come back and help put the damn uppity space trash back in their proper place under the just rule of the Earth Federation government.

Maybe because unlike the series where he is rookie officer on his first deployment during the White Bases trip to Side Seven and kind of grew into the role of Captain over the course of the series. Here his first deployment is on a Pegasus Class which got clobbered by Zeon therefore right now he is kind of angry at Zeon at the moment.

Saw this on fanfiction.net. It's quite interesting. Shame there's not a lot of good ones like it in other franchises. There's this Seed story about Kira in ZAFT, for example, but it's not as fascinating or large as this.

Ugh. Don't I can remember it off the top of my head. But I do have a Crossover one that I'm reading.
Forward Unto Dawn on Space Battle's. Which is a GundamxCode Geass story where a mysterious event takes Axis, the moon and the random Titan and AEUG units near the moon into the CC universe.

It's currently necro'd though. You can read what is there if you want.